


Real Life Isn't Hard

by Villusjeas



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), RLCraft
Genre: A cinnamon roll, A girl way over her head trying to help everyone, Alternate Reality, Battle, Betrayal, Broken, Characters based off of youtubers...kinda, Completely original premise..., Conspiracy, Crazy battles, Creepy mods, Death, Do people even read these kinds of stories?, Dreams, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Fighters, Friendship, Future, Gore, Healthy Relationships, Is it too scary for you?, Isekai, Its a tough story to read, Its certainly different from youtuber fics, Kinda, Kingdoms, Knights - Freeform, Lots of psychopaths!, Love, Loyalty, Manipulation, Marriage, Mine and your happiness, Monster - Freeform, Multiple megalomaniacs (Schlatt?), Nightmares, Non-youtuber fic, Oh god I hope nothing bad happens to him, Paranoia, Past, Platonic Love, Real Life, Reality, Redemption, Romance, Sick Love, Snarky asshole with trust issues, Still gonna write this even if no one reads...someone out there will enjoy it eventually, Tough Love, Unhealthy Relationships, War, We have in this story:, crafting, do they even read these tags?, failed love, its not all fun and games, l'manburg, lol, present, soul, super optimistic All Might
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26992270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Villusjeas/pseuds/Villusjeas
Summary: Reality can often be considered harsh. Many, if not all want to escape from it to a certain degree. Some find solace in simpler escapism. Others, however, find themselves in another form of reality. One that is not as forgiving...
Relationships: OC/OC
Kudos: 3
Collections: Mc





	1. Just a Bad Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, look. This story will not be all sunshine and rainbows, and if that's not your thing I don't blame you. You came here for escapism, to have fun and read lighthearted interactions between characters you know and love. This story is not like that. It is entirely made of OCs and the main character may come off as a jerk. But I feel like this kind of story of redemption and mending (Minecraft pun lol) of the heart is one that many here may enjoy. I think at some points in our lives we have wanted to escape our situations. Sometimes we feel like we have it terrible. Other times we feel like we're not good enough to fit in. This is why video games and other forms of escapist media exists. But here we got another for of escapism we all wish for, to live in another world of kingdoms, monsters, and heroes, where we become the main character and save the day! Right?
> 
> No, I got inspiration of this story from Re:Zero, where the MC got transported to another world by accident, is completely useless in battle, and worst of all, is delusion at first. He thought he was the main hero there to slay the dragon with a single swing of his mighty sword, but he still stayed as the nerd he was from his old world. Its a pretty cool anime and I recommend it if you can stomach some of the more messed up scenes.
> 
> In many ways my story is parallel but also the opposite of this story. You'll understand if you read on. 
> 
> But enough about that, I do hope you enjoy this dose of messed up reality, reality is often considered harsh, but some people live in other forms of reality, ones where they are born to, stuck in, and worst of all, not as forgiving...

This was not good.

This was not how he imagined things would go.

This was not how he wanted things to end.

He had things he wanted to do.

He had places he was going to go.

People to impress.

Family to prove wrong.

But of course, life always seems to have something out for him.

_"Look honey, I know what you did was self-defense, but did you have to go so far?" His mother, bless her soul, asked. She was clearly distressed about the situation despite her soft spoken nature._

_It wasn't like he didn't feel bad for putting her through that, but those idiots had it coming. Seriously, they thought that 3 versus 1 was a fair fight? Pathetic._

_Ok, so they were all nearly unconscious when the teacher came to them, and he also could've stopped when the other 2 were on the ground already, but come on, how lame do you have to be to plan out a fight only to become a crying mess when things don't go your way?_

_He honestly got second handed embarrassment seeing them act all high and mighty only to become blubbering messes when he beats them down. Years of training only to be able to fight a couple of wannabe tough guys really has gotten him to feel down. Jeez when would he be actually challenged by something._

He could hear the growling behind him. Or at least he thinks they're growling. All he knew for sure was that those things were not any creature he has ever seen before. They seemed to be some sort of arthropod. They were docile until the big one laid its eyes (he thinks they're eyes) on him. Now here they were chasing him down with the big one leading the hunt.

He would not scream, he would not cry, and he sure as hell wasn't going to beg for mercy. But those things were gaining on him, and despite how proud he was of his athleticism he was no animal. Those creatures were faster than him, and they will gain on him unless some sort of miracle happens.

_"The hell is wrong with you? Where's all those balls you had before? Don't tell me you're pussing out?" He stood over the little roach. Seriously, he talked a big game till his two buddies were down._

_"Look man, I'm sorry ok? I just wanted to give you a good scare!"_

_"By beating the shit out of me?"_

_"Ye- I mean no! You got to understand, we have our reps ya know? we didn't know you were -aahh!" Before the roach could finish a fist landed on his face. The fist's owner then wiped his hands on one of the unconscious boy's shirts._

_"Shit man, here I thought this was gonna be good. You really had to waste my time with this?" He walked up to the roaches. Two were still squirming. He squash one with his foot before it tried to crawl away. As for the last one…_

_He was the biggest one of the three. The leader, if he could even call him that, had tears streaming down his eyes, and his nose was bleeding pretty badly. Well, they do say that a cornered animal did fight the fiercest. Maybe this could still be interesting._

The irony was not lost here right now. Except the worst thing that happened to that roach was a couple of cuts and bruises, along with a broken pride. But pride can be fixed. His life on the other hand…

Why the hell was this happening to him? What did he do? What the hell went wrong? No matter how he looked at this, it didn't make any sense.

_"What the hell happened?" His dad bellowed. He is the latest person to learn about the "fight", although calling it that was a stretch. "How could you do this? We trusted you wouldn't do this again. Then we turn around for a bit, and we hear about this!"_

_"Dad, he had it coming. Besides, you were the one to tell me to defend myself when someone tried to mess with me," the young boy said back, "Ok, maybe I may have taken it a bit too far-"_

_"A bit? A bit?! You had the boy on the ground bleeding and crying while getting the whole class to taunt the poor kid. What did he do to deserve that?" the aging man asked, he grabbed his son by the shoulders and pulled him to his face, "What horrible things did he do to you that incited that?"_

_The boy looked away for a moment. That snake had it coming. Damn it. Why him? He did what he felt was justified. If that meant humiliating the snake, why did he have to get punished?_

_"You never answered the question. What did he do?"_

_"It's...Complicated."_

_"Then make it simple."_

_He really did contemplate on snitching the snake out. But at this point what difference will it make? The snake has slithered away now, and he's left out having to answer for what the snake did. Dammit, maybe the snake already got what he wanted. Sure he was humiliated in front of the entire class and probably the entire school. But all he would have to do is switch schools. The teachers, faculty, and even the parents of other children all look at him like a psychopath. But he was at the top of his class. He was seen as someone great, a star student, but all of that now came crumbling down._

_That damn snake._

_"Are you going to answer?" His dad asked._

_"He...tricked me…" He half-admitted._

_"How?" his dad interrogated._

_"I…" he looked away again._

_"Tell me please! We need to know in order to help you!" the older man pleaded._

_"I can't say..."_

_"Please! You need to say something! Anything! Anything to explain this mess!"_

_Finally the boy lost his temper and yelled, "It doesn't matter! That jerk deserved everything that happened to him! I don't care how bad he got treated or how hurt he got! HE DESERVED IT!"_

He seriously needed to reevaluate when it would be a good time to reminisce about the shitty things in his life. Those creatures were right on his heel.

Waking up in this desert has got to be the worst thing to happen to him. Hot humid air, no civilization anywhere he looked, and the thirst was unbearable. Seriously, what kind of rotten luck does he have to wake up in a total wasteland.

There was a cave with a small opening up a head. Finally! A goddamn miracle. He will survive this, and afterwards he's going straight home, somehow. There has to be a way to go back if he ended up here. Maybe he would need to make some landmar-

He tripped.

The creatures wasted no time ganging up on him. Each of them surrounded him, blocking any escape he had. Then they began ripping him apart.

He would not scream.

"AAAAAGGGGHHHHHH! NOO! Please!" his leg was getting torn open. He felt them grab his arms and started pulling them apart. Another was stabbing his legs and ripping the meat out.

He would not cry.

Tears were falling down his face as his arms got dislocated. His legs were getting smashed to pieces.

He would not beg for mercy.

"Please! don't do this!" He cried, "I had plans! I had things I wanted to-AAAGGGHHH!" he pleaded as one of his arms came off.

God damn it. He couldn't even keep promises to himself.

_"Listen, you can't spend the rest of your life terrorizing those around to get what you want! One day you won't be able to keep up this act of yours!" The older man lectured._

_"Why?" the boy asked apathetically._

_"Because one day you'll be the one in the other end. And I won't be there to help you. No one will. And you'll have no idea what to do. You're going to feel what others felt when you targeted them. And I don't want that. But it seems like that's the road you're taking..."_

"Someone! Please! Hel-AAAGGHH!" One of the claws found its way to his throat.

The desert was silent once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, well....wait! don't leave! There's more! see! Bear with me, I know this may be a bit different from what others are writing, but I do hope that people can begin to write more original stories using the game as a stand. 
> 
> Let me explain: there seems to be a saturation of youtuber fics, while not inherently a bad thing, I do feel that there is an untapped well of creativity with the many mods this game has to offer that writers can take advantage of. The mod I'm writing about is well, somewhat well known with a rich lore that can be written if an author is ambitious enough! That's what I'm trying to do, but without the support of viewers that decided to click on this fic(BTW thanks for making it this far, you a real one), I don't think that we can spread the idea that we can write about different universes in this simple sandbox game!  
> I'm hoping to revive the fantasy/adventure side of this fandom again, where characters attempt to understand the world they ended up in.
> 
> Well thats enough rambling from me, I do hope you enjoyed it. Till next time!


	2. Night Life

The forest was quiet.

He had a love hate relationship with the quiet forest. On one hand, it was nice not to hear terrifying creatures around every five seconds. Trees were helpful for him to duck and hide whenever he heard something large walk by. But the quiet forest really made it hard for him to distract himself.

_"Cmon pussy! Where the hell is my money!" A tall boy yelled out in front of a house. The little rat really thought he was going to let this slide?_

_"Um, boss I don't think he's home." one of the three cronies said, "It's only been two days. Maybe he'll..."_

_"Maybe he should've stuck with the agreement!" The boss snapped, "He said he needed it done soon, and we all gave him what he wanted to supposedly help him out, but now we need our payment. We gave him that warning two days ago. But he was the one who was trying to worm his way out of paying this past month."_

_"I know," the smaller of the cronies said, "But I think that-"_

_"You can't just think things," The boss interjected, "You got to be sure that people don't try to screw you over."_

_He sighed, the job wasn't even that hard, just a couple of playground bullies, but dammit! His reputation is on the line! Years of playing goody-two shoes in order to get the trust back from his teacher and principal only to risk it cuz some pussy couldn't deal with his own problems. He tried to make the price as unreasonable as possible, but the pussy went with it. Of course, knowing the rat, he said he would get the money after the bullies were taken care of._

_Honestly this whole thing just seemed fishy. The rat was really a huge coward. Nothing else, but that also means that if he wasn't careful with this, that rat would probably...well rat him out. But of course, he had a plan._

_All he needs is to give him a good scare._

He heard some more stomping around, and he quickly hid behind some smaller trees. Despite the forest being more calm, it was far from safe. Already three different monsters chased after him. Thankfully he does manage to hide away.

How long has he been here? Maybe a few hours, at most. How long ago was-

_"Someone! Please! Hel-AAAGGHH!"_

No, he shouldn't be thinking about that. What he has to do is figure out how the hell did he get out of here. In order to figure that out he has to remember how he got here.

But all he remembers is waking up. Both times he just woke up like he would any other day. Despite this fucking situation.

Look at him, hiding in the shadows, no better than a rat. Forced to eat up scraps, and fruits that other animals left behind.

Of course even the fruits had to fuck with him. Eating one gave him intense food poisoning, and he fell to the floor and spilled out everything he spent the last half and hour scrounging up in his stomach. He didn't even have the energy to be mad about that. All he did was go back to strapping whatever leftovers he could find, and stomach.

Thankfully night was coming, and the only way to pass the time quicker is to sleep. Hopefully the beasts around will also follow the biological clock. With that, maybe he would be able to wake up extra early to get some of the better fruits, and maybe even fish around the lakes and rivers.

He looked around as the sun was setting from his little shelter he dug out from the side of a hill. Strange, no creatures were in sight. Do they go hide as well in the night? That makes things even better!

There was no way in hell he was going to deal with his stomach eating at him from the inside when he could grab as many apples as he can from the trees around. No way he was going to sleep on an empty stomach.

As he dashed towards the trees from the safety of his hole. He then heard growling. It wasn't the same growling he heard before...that other time.

This one sounded more sapient.

He slowly turned his head.

Only to be greeted by a horde of sickly green skinned humanoid creatures that all smelled awful. Listening more clearly, he realized that it wasn't really a growling, but more of a moan.

The creatures swiped at him, and he ran away as fast as he could. He soon realized a couple more things out in the night.

It was pitch black in the forest.

He lost where his hole was.

And the most terrifying thing: The night was full of activity, much more than in daylight.

_"Listen man," the boy said as he took a swig from his bottle, "The night is always the best time to strike. Its always expected, but its the anticipation that makes it much more terrifying. You see whats going to happen and there is nothing you can do bout it." He looked at his three cronies, which were all shifting uncomfortably. "Look you all decided to stick with me right?" They all nodded, "So if you're gonna stick with me you better be prepared to get your hands dirty."_

As he was desperately dashing through the trees he could hear a myriad of noise from all directions. Moaning from the humanoid creatures, the clacking of bones, the disgusting slithers of a spider he had the displeasure of seeing from afar, only its glowing eyes were visible. A popping noise from a far made him turn his head towards the direction of the noise. Only to gaze into purple eyes.

Seconds later a large scream erupted from the source of the eyes, and then he heard a pop from behind him. Before he could turn around he felt two unnaturally large hands wrap themselves around his neck.

"Son of a BIT-" CRACK, the body fell limp to the ground.

But of course, the night has only begun.


	3. You Need a Night Light

The cave smelled. Not that he was complaining, since it was better than the alternative. Way less painful.

How many times has it been already? Five, six times? He looked at the wall that had 5 scratches that he put with a stick he got.

First one was due to some weird desert creatures tearing him apart. Seriously those things can go fuck themselves.

Second was due to some tall asshole who started screeching just because he made eye contact with the thing. The hell was that thing's problem?

Third and fourth were just stupid. Woke up in the middle of the ocean, twice. Already bad enough as it is to be in the middle of the ocean, he knew there were all sorts of terrifying monsters down there. Never really was a fan of the ocean, and somehow he felt that the world knew as well, since he ended up in the ocean twice in a row, only to get dragged down underwater by two different sea monsters. One which chomped down on him, and the other, which he despised more than the first one, kept him underwater while chewing on him. He died of suffocation, but it didn't make the bites any less painful.

And the fifth one was due to a dragon. Yep, a dragon. He probably would have been able to hide from it if it wasn't for the fact that those green smelly bastards didn't start chasing him again. The moment the dragon spotted him, one simple puff of breath was all it took to burn him to a crisp.

This world is really insane, and the more he thought about his situation the more his head hurt.

There's seriously nothing better to do right now though. The noise of the monsters outside made it impossible for him to sleep, not like he would want to anymore, his paranoia was doing wonders for his mental state. Thankfully his hunger hasn't been bothering him now, but that was probably the only good thing that happened to him besides the fact that he woke up close to another cave this time.

So he just decided to lay there for the night. It was dark, but at least he knew nothing would come inside.

Then he heard a growling.

"Oh fuck me," he moaned as he started to get up and back himself up a wall.

But he never reached it. Instead he felt a chill behind him. He turned around to be greeted by a set of 3 eyes, and a large smile full of razor sharp teeth that seemed to split its face open.

He wanted to run away again but it took 2 seconds to realize what he did.

He literally buried himself in the cave so nothing could go in.

Which meant nothing could go out.

"Shit, shit, shit," He yelled as he ran towards the area where he buried himself, but the monster had already bitten his arm.

"No! No! NO! I am not going outside again!" He cried as he whacked the creature with his stick. It let go, but not without it ripping a chunk of his arm with it.

"Auugh! Fuck off!" He growled using his good arm to swing the stick at the freak. It landed, and the creature was sent flying across the cave. Only for it to disappear into the walls.

"Where are you freak!" He yelled at the empty room. The room was much darker than before. Before it was dark, but now he couldn't even see his own hands when he held them to his face.

As for the answer to his question, the freak decided to answer with it appearing behind him from the walls. How did he know it was behind him? Because it bit him.

On the back of his neck.

"Oh fuck off…" He groaned as his body fell to the floor.

_"Please! You're strong right? You can help us!" The boy on the floor pleaded._

_"Damn right I am, and I got strong by dealing with my issues. On. My. Own!" The taller boy spat as he kicked his leg away from the pleading four eyed rat. Seriously, who does this idiot think he is? Thinking that flattery was going to get him to do what he wanted. "I'm not doing it ok? Deal with it on your own. I got more important things to do than to deal with some weak little rat's problem."_

_"Please!" the boy said as the taller one began walking away, "I'll do anything, they have been making me and my friend's life a living hell!" The boy didn't stop walking. "I'll- I'll…. I'll pay you!" he yelled._

_That made the boy with cronies stop walking. The leader turned around, "You really desperate for this?"_

_"Yes! I wouldn't do this if there was any other way," the boy with glasses uttered._

_"Ok," he said, the four eyed rat's face lit up, "but," the leader continued, "it ain't cheap. I'd say it would be an all day job, wouldn't you agree fellas?"_

_"Uh...yeah! Time is money! So would our services!" The tallest of the cronies responded._

_"We do got a lot to risk...:``The one with the shaven head said._

_"Not to mention that we would have to walk around, that's a waste of energy!" the shortest one added._

_"Um… ok name your price!" The four eyed kid uttered._

_"200 bucks each," the leader proposed._

_"What?! That's 800 dollars!" the rat complained._

_"Take it or leave it," the boss said as he began walking away with his group, "you can complain all you want, but that's the cost of your problem going away."_

_"You can't do that! You're really gonna leave me at the mercy of those guys just because you don't want to deal with it? This is almost extortion!" the sniveling boy cried, "those guys are monsters! They have nothing to lose in torturing us! The only way to get them to stop is to fight them off!"_

_"And how is that my problem?" the leader scoffed, not stopping, "You're the one getting tortured. I don't lose anything for ignoring your problem. You, however, came to us begging us to help you and then started whining that we didn't drop all our things just to help you out. That's pathetic. You're pathetic," he finished._

_"Well, you're a coward!" the rat accused. This caused the cronies to flinch and move away from their boss as he stopped walking and turned around._

_"What?" he growled._

_"You're strong, yet you hide behind a little facade, you act like you're a honest, normal person. You pretend to be good but-" before he could finish he was lifted off the ground by the leader, who was glaring daggers at him._

_"Listen you little shit, you know nothing about me, so don't go spouting your bullshit to me. I'm a monster, an asshole, a bastard, a liar, but I'll never be a coward, you got it?" he spat. He expected him to start blubbering an apology, but the rat surprised him. He didn't back down and continued to glare at him._

_"I may not know you, but what you're showing to me is that you're willing to put your head down if your reputation is on the line," the rat shot back._

_"Cuz like I said, dumbass, I got nothing to lose knowing you're all getting your asses kicked cuz all of you can't do shit to defend yourselves." The leader replied._

_"Can you still say that," The rat whispered, "If someone's life is on the line?"_

_"No one's life is on the line," the leader responded._

_"You didn't answer the question.," the rat accused._

_"Cuz it's a stupid question!" The leader roared, "No one's life is on the line! And even if it was, it's their own fault for getting put in that situation."_

_"So you're ok with people dying knowing you can prevent it?" the rat asked._

_"Why are you convinced that someone is going to die?" the leader questioned._

_"Why are you so convinced that someone undeserving isn't going to die?" the rat asked in response._

_"Because no one-" the leader began, only for the rat in a strange act of courage cut him off._

_You don't know that! You don't know anything about me or my friends!"_

_The leader stared at him for a moment. Despite the rat being in tears, he glared back at him defiantly. The air around him felt thick, and they saw leader stiffen up for a moment. Everyone in the area stayed silent, waiting for the oncoming disaster. But it never came, instead the leader sighed, and put the rat down. He then said, "You're right, I don't. But that doesn't change much. I don't know enough about you guys to stick my neck out. Hell, for all I know this could be one big ploy."_

_The four eyed boy looked up at him, "Please, at least hear out our story," he pleaded._

_The leader looked over him, the scrawny, four eyed boy stiffened up, but held his gaze. They stared at each other again until finally, the leader sighed, "Fine, let's hear this sob story."_


	4. Newfound Friends! Right?

It was a miracle.

A goddamn miracle.

The sun peeked over the horizon from his window, while the creatures of the night burned. Turns out that the amount of time he was in that cave was enough for the night to pass. And somehow, the world threw him a bone by letting him wake up near a building. Well, at least that's all he remembered. But the building there made him realize something.

There are other people here.

He doesn't remember when he was dragged into a bed, but he sure has hell wasn't complaining. He still had to run away for a while after he woke up from that last fight with the three eyed teeth monster, since there were some stragglers that took shade from the sun and started to attack him when he woke up. He had to run, but not without taking multiple arrows around his arms and legs by those meatless assholes. He never stopped running though, he was not prepared to die again. Unfortunately, he was bleeding all over when he got to the building, and the lack of blood made him faint.

Fortunately, for once, he woke up in a nice soft bed. Well, he didn't really have much of a reference since he was outside for the past 2 days. Damn, has it really only been two days?

He shuffled to get a good view outside the window. It looked like he was on the second floor. Did someone carry him here? He doesn't really remember. He was sure he didn't die again though, since he woke up covered in bandages instead of being completely healed. He wasn't complaining, he really wasn't eager to add to his death count.

He would've continued pondering on this until the door opened. He turned around, curious to see who he has to owe his life to.

She had in her hands some towels and a couple rolls of bandages, but the thing that caught him off guard was her size.

She was small. Really small. It didn't take a genius to realize what her age was. She could not be older than ten years old. He didn't have time to think about it any further when she made eye contact and instantly froze like a deer in headlights.

"Uh…" he began, "Hey kid-"

"MOM!" She screamed as she bolted out the door dropping everything she had in her hands, leaving the bedridden teen confused.

Great, his first conversation consists of someone running off calling for their mom, although ironically enough, it's not the first time that has happened.

_"Mom!" the baby screamed, running off to his parents, who both panicked seeing their boy in such a distressed state._

_"What happened?" the mother cried, seeing the awful bruise on the boy's face, "Oh my god! Who did this to you?"_

_The boy said nothing but with tears still streaming down his face, pointed at another lone child who was standing in the field,a basketball in his hands, seemingly unbothered by the blubbering child that was currently telling on him._

_"We were going to play a game of dodgeball, and we thought it was going to be with normal balls, but then he launched the basketball at me!" the boy explained in between sniffs. His cheeks were beginning to swell and his dad put an ice pack on the boy's face._

_"Where's that boy's parents? He can't just go around hitting kids! Oh god, he has more kids in on his game, how did he convince them," the father mused worryingly. The boy was on one side of the field with a small group of children, while another group of kids were on the other side. Although they were aware of their crying kid, none of them seemed keen on backing out. On both sides the kids were mindlessly throwing the balls around, but while they were throwing the balls, some were falling to the ground, sporting similar bruises as the ones that their child had. In the mess of children playing, there was one who was sporting a manic grin._

_He knew they were watching. But he didn't really bother to hide his onslaught. That was until the father decided to put a stop to their game. Of course when he came to confront him and all the other kids. They all scattered. And he slipped away._

It was honestly surprisingly easy it was to get away with stuff like that. Eh, who cares at this point. Not him. He should feel bad, but considering how bad the last few days have been going, he was going to take the few chuckles he can.

His reminiscing of the good old days was interrupted by the swinging of the door, caused by the woman he assumed was the little girl's mother. Well at least he can talk with someone now.

"Hey, I-"

Before he could even get another word out, the woman sharply cuts him off, "Where did you come from?"

"Excuse me?" he asked, irritated beyond words.

"It's a simple question," She huffed, "Where did you come from?"

She was lucky she was a mother and that he was bandaged up. Why the hell is she so aggressive?

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked cautiously.

"Depends on your answer," she responded.

Now he was in a bad spot. He was lucky enough to be near any form of civilization, but right now for all he cared, he was back in the wilderness with those wild creatures. A wrong move is going to possibly get him killed. Should he go with an honest answer? But this lady seems to know more about this place than he does. She might know about the deaths and revivals, that is, if there were others like him, which doesn't sound too far fetched in the grand scheme of things. Why keep someone who can't die safe anyways? Less resources and trouble. Hell, he might've done the same.

But now he was on the receiving end of judgement. It was like running around a forest full of multiple bear traps blindfolded, while also being chased down by a bear that doesn't get affected by said traps. He has to tread carefully but quickly. .

"I don't know," he said. It was simple, yet effective when trying to figure out a situation. Amnesia would be a good way to get info out of people. Even if it was info he already knew it would stall for time to get his mind together, "I just remember waking up," that was technically the truth, "And I had to run away," those two events weren't connected but it was still technically the truth, "Then I found this village," also technically the truth.

There was no good answer right now, so it was best to stick with non answers instead.

"Is that really all?" She asked skeptically.

"It's all I can say," he responded sort of honestly.

"I see..." she says as she walks around the room and picks up a portrait that's out of his sights, "So you have no idea of who you were before you woke up."

He really wanted to say that he had no idea who he was in this world, but saying that might still give away too much.

"I have no idea how I got there," he said.

"What about before?" She questioned.

"I honestly don't know how I ended up here," he repeated.

The woman finally put down the portrait and started walking towards the boy, "Tell me, are you lying to me about anything?" she probed as she got to the side of his bed.

"No," He simply said, he was getting unnerved with the questions, but at least that was the truth.

"Ok," she said as she went down to his eye level, "Well then boy let me rephrase that, are you being completely honest with me?"

Wow, the million dollar question (Do they even have currency here?). Beating around the bush isn't working, he's only backing himself to a corner. For all he knew, she might have already figured him out and is only trying to either get him to confess or catch him in a full on lie. He knew that his time was numbered, he was injured and he has no idea how this world works, and he couldn't get a read on the woman. Might as well be a bit more intense.

"No I haven't," he said quietly looking down at his sheets, "But I don't want to die!" he suddenly cried, "I'm so scared! I just came here and I was bombarded by all these monsters! Skeletons! Zombies! Weird bug creatures! Weird ghosts! Giant dinosaurs! What the hell is this place!" He screamed, "Please! Don't send me back out there! I want to go home!"

Initially caught off guard by the boy's outburst the woman composed herself and once again turned her head towards the portrait. The bedridden boy still couldn't see what she was looking at, but decided to listen to her response.

"I see…" was all she said.

Great, she clearly isn't the empathetic type, either that or she was not trusting his word. There was no way to understand what she was thinking. For all he knew she could be the kind of person that would reluctantly throw him out just for acting like a baby.

The women once again looked back at him and confessed, "Look boy, I understand your fear, that is, if you're telling the truth. But you have to understand that we've been through a lot as well, and well...you're very suspicious. You might have gone through a lot, or you could be lying through your teeth, I don't know, but what I do know is that if you are in any way the way I'm afraid you are, then the best course of action for the village would be to either kill you or leave you to the monsters outside the walls."

"Hey! But I-" before the boy could retort the lady held up her hand.

"Either way," She said, "If there is the smallest chance that you actually are scared and confused right now, I can't leave you with a good conscience. But I need you to answer me this honestly first before I make any decision."

"Ok…" the boy responded unsurely.

"How many times have you died?" she asked.

"What kind of question is that?" he tensed.

"Answer the question," She probed, "You're not making this any easier."

She obviously knows. It was stupid to try and pull a fast one on someone who's clearly knows how this world works better than he did.

"Six times...:" he groaned, breaking eye contact and looking down at the sheets, " I've died six times in this world."

"Hmm...And how long have you been here?" she implored.

"What?" he asked, looking up at her.

"I'm asking how long have you been here as in days, weeks or months." she clarified, she had not broken eye contact with him, and was staring intently at him.

"It hasn't even been 2 days!" he said exasperated more than fearful at this point, "Look if you're going to get rid of me, can I at least have one last meal? I haven't had any good food in my time outside the village. I mean come on! I'm not really asking for much am I? Or are you guys in some sort of famine? It doesn't really matter, I'd rather you guys not kill me, and just let me go, I feel like I'll get the hang of this world soo-"

"Who says we were throwing you out?" she snapped, "Ugh! Out of all the Seekers we've dealt with you're one of the more cynical ones, you know that? Why did you even try to hide the fact you can revive? Like, do you really think we were going to use you as bait or something? Seriously…" she fumed as she started to stand up and pace around the room, "Look, it seems like you're the aggressive type, but you're really inexperienced, can you fight?"

"What?" he said perplexed with the sudden shift in tone.

She continued to ponder, "You seem to have a decent muscle mass, your attitude makes you pretty resilient mentally, considering that you have died quite a few times yet you seem to act quite casually, don't worry, that attitude is more common than you think. But You're pretty crafty which isn't quite as common, don't try anything funny though, without much strength it'll be hard for you to get anything done, but maybe a cunning mind won't hurt in the long run..."

"Wait, what the hell are you on about?!" he hollered, clearly confused with where this was going.

"Well if you just listen, then I'll tell you, I just need to think about where to put you," she retorted, not stopping her pacing, "You got the strength even at your base body but you lack experience...Oh! You'll need some soul fragments and maybe we'll see what you can really do," she stopped and looked at the boy again whose face has not changed from that bewildered look he had when she started her explanation, "Something wrong?" she asked.

Now given the chance to talk, the boy asked, "What are you on about? What's going to happen to me. I know I'm not going to get killed off, but still…"

She walks up to him and pokes at his forehead much to the bedridden boy's displeasure and says, "Listen, you're not getting thrown out or killed." clearly annoyed at the boy's insistence on death she let out a sigh.

"I'm not?" he asked.

"No! Of course not! Seriously do you take us for monsters or something?" she exclaimed.

"Well…." he tensed, "Wait, then what's going to happen?" he wondered.

The lady smiled for the first time since this entire conversation, "You're getting a job," she explained, "I was trying to gauge what you would be good for, since most of you Seekers tend to come here with no experience. I try to recommend where it would be a good place to place you."

"Oh, thank god. I'll gladly accept any job." the boy sighed in relief finally at a place that he can exploi- help out, but of course he still asked, "Unless...it's something ridiculous?"

"Not ridiculous," the lady said, her smile becoming more smug, "more like...brutal."

Oh boy, he hoped he didn't bite off more than he could chew. He might want to take his chances with the monsters now…

The lady seemed to notice him tense and her smile became more gentle. She looked much more motherly at that moment, and strangely enough it somehow put the boy at ease. But he couldn't let his guard down yet.

"Don't worry, we don't put anyone in dangerous situations if it's not necessary," she explained, "We actually have someone to show you the ropes," she then began to walk up towards the portrait, finally revealing the picture to the boy. He then gasped at the sight.

In the picture was a man in his late twenties fully covered in a blood red armor seemingly cheerful, standing atop of a pile of bodies. Zombies, and skeletons were probably the two only monsters the boy recognized among the pile of corpses that were beneath the man, but at the very top, right underneath the armor warrior, was a dragon.

The women let another smug grin form as she saw the boy's reaction and said, "His name is William but they nicknamed him The Dragonseeker, and I'm sure you can see why, no?"

The boy snapped out of his shocked expression and spouted, "Why call him a seeker?"

"Because he's like you," she replied, "A seeker." The boy was still confused until she clarified, "He can revive just like you."


	5. Don't Need no Damn Tutorial!

The boy continued to ponder what the lady just told him a while ago. It confirmed his earlier suspicion, but it still begged the question…

How did that guy get so strong?

Even with years of training someone can't just take on an army by themselves, especially not with a horde of monsters that were clearly stronger than the common man. Then again, the lady, whose name turned out to be Maria, said something about soul fragments. What are those? Some sort of evolution crystal?

Well whatever it is, all he can do now is just go to sleep now. It was late and he was already healing up. He was sure they were going to take him out tomorrow. Now it was time to rest.

_They were gaining on him. No matter how hard he tried to run faster, it felt like he was wading through water. His legs felt heavy, and he was getting tired. But the growling was what kept him from falling to his knees. He would not die today, he had so much to prove to others! He was not crazy! He just needed to be in a different environment. The one he lives in is full of pussies!_

_Unfortunately as he was running through the halls he tripped and fell again. He braced for the oncoming slaughter. But it never came._

_Only time stopped._

_He looked around perplexed on what just happened. Until his eyes fell on a hand that was reaching out for him._

_"Hey man are you alright? C'mon lets get out of her-" only for the stranger's hand to get slapped away from the boy on the ground. He was glaring daggers at the boy standing over him._

_"You," He growled, "I don't need your help. Leave me alone."_

_"Dude, come on! There's no time!" the standing boy said, " Here take my hand we can get out of this if we work toge-"_

_"Fuck off! You think I'm gonna trust you again? You're out of your mind," The other boy on the floor said._

_"Are you kidding me? Lets go!" the standing boy grabbed the other boy that was on the ground. In a fit of rage he smacked him._

_"NO!" The ground boy yelled, "Get away from me!"_

_"Oh for the love of-" before the standing boy could retort, the boy on the ground punched him._

_"Ok, you know what! fuck it!" The boy that was previously standing above shouted._

_They both began to slug each other in the face. Soon it became a wrestling match each of them fighting to stand above the other. The creatures were closing in on them. Their howls echoed throughout the hallway, yet both didn't seem to care. All that was in their mind was to take the other one out. But one was more aggressive. The one that he embraced. The one that helped him forget. The one that made him happy. Why the hell was he back? Why did he want to take it all away again? It was too painful, don't make him remember, please dear god don't make him remember._

_He knew that nothing was going to change. Hoping to do the same thing over and over again, it was too much for him, he knew he had to change, and in order to do that the boy had to die. But he won't die, he doesn't want him to die. If he did, then that would mean that all he had before would be gone, but he had to let go didn't he? He had to move on, right? But he can't, that boy is in great pain, in a weakened state, and a failure. But the thing they both know is that he's persistent, and he won't stop trying to help him, he knew that there was no way that he was going to die._

_Because he won't allow it. No matter how much he wants to kill him, he can't, all he can do is drown it down to the deepest, darkest dungeons he can think of. He won't die but he wouldn't be such a pain there. But now he's out again, and he's making things worse. He's hoping that this time things will be different, but in the end, he's only damaging themselves. It was pointless, he was fuc-_

_"Stop it! We have to go," the annoyance yelled only to get socked in the face, "You can't be serious, you need me! We don't have time for this! Listen to me! Please! Let me out! Let me help! This has gone on too long!"_

_"Shut up!" The other boy yelled as he was going to swing, only for his opponent to scream. He turned around and the creatures pounced._

_"You idiot this is why you- AUGGGH!"_

The sound of a door slamming open caused the boy in bed to jump awake. Yeesh, his first real sleep in days and now it's over. He quickly sat up and looked around the room. It was almost morning again. His third day here has begun.

But before he could get his head together he heard the booming voice of the person who kicked the door open.

"Haha! You're awake, that's great!" The man beamed. Why the hell was this guy so loud. Already he didn't like him. That was until he saw who it was.

Although the man had none of his armor and instead sported a simple tunic with baggy grey pants. That unmistakable smile on his bearded face was what made the boy realize who he was.

William the Dragonseeker. The man who was said to be able to fight off all those amalgamation that were screwing with the boy in the night. He was incredibly strong, and the key to surviving here.

And maybe even the key to find a way back home.

"Hello! you may have heard of me! I am William Arc! Humble protector of this village!" he boasted.

Protector? That was lame, he thought he was some sort of explorer. Why did he stick around here?

"I know you have a myriad of questions! But don't worry about anything that's confusing you, just ask and I'll answer with the best of my abilities!" he boomed, "But first, let's head outside, you can ask away while we walk!" William said, as he began dragging the boy out of bed.

"Wait! WAIT!" the boy snapped, "Let me get dressed at least!"

"Oh! I'm sorry! Didn't mean to drag you!" William laughed as he let go of the boy, "Say, now that I think about it, my wife didn't catch your name when you guys talked!"

"My name...Wait! That lady is your wife?!" he gaped, that actually explained a lot.

"Yes, yes! I know! she's way out of my league! But believe it! Not only does she have beauty but the heart of a warrior. What more can a husband wan-"

"Ok! Enough of your gushing, you're gonna make me sick…" the boy quivered. This was too much, he really wished now that he was back in the forest, at least then he wouldn't have to think about love, because thinking about love made him think about…

_He kneeled on the floor, blood seeping out of his stomach as he looked up at his assailant. His eyes were sunken, and his face was pale. It was a cold winter evening with a heavy shower raining on them, but he didn't care, all he felt was betrayal._

_"Why?" he gasped, as he clutched his stomach trying to slow down the bleeding._

_The assailant simply looked at him. Her eyes were cold as the air that surrounded them. The stab was painful, but what hurt more were the emotionless eyes. She didn't care. She never cared. He was an idio-_

"Hello? Young man! You never told me your name!" William piped. The boy snapped out of his thoughts.

"Um...it's Morey," the boy said distractedly.

"Hey," William said, more softly this time, "You were zoning out, is something bothering-"

"I'm fine!" the newly named Morey snapped. He wasn't in the mood, "Maria said you were going to show me the...ropes? Whatever that meant."

William held his gaze on the young boy, but then laughed, "Ha! Of course, let's go! Don't forget if you have any questions just ask!"

"Well first off, where the hell are we?" The boy asked as he put some clothes that were set by his bed. It was similar to William's attire.

"In the kingdom of Amazoculto of course!" the man boomed enthusiastically. The boy looked at him unamused. "Ok! You're talking about the world right? Heh...well the world is called Yumesueno. No, I have no idea how we got here. Yes, there are more of us out there. Is there anything you're confused about?"

"Whoa! Slow down! that's a lot of info you're dropping on me right now. Just give me some time to process this, jeeze…"

"Very well," William said, "Well if you got any more questions, let me know."

As they got out of the building and walked across the village, Morey finally got a good look at the village. It was pretty simple, with wooden walls and stone ceilings. The building he got out of was a tall stone tower that was significantly taller than most buildings. The main form of defense according to Maria were the walls, which were made out of a shiny black stone that towered over them. There was a bell in the center along with crops, both being guarded by floating creatures that seem to wear blue armor around their wispy white bodies. Stranger than that was the shields that were floating around them, orbiting around their bodies like moons to a planet. They sensed Morey and dashed towards him shields raising up and spinning faster like saws, which caused him to panic. That was, however, until William grabbed his shoulders.

"Don't worry boy! They're only the guardians of the village! They mean no harm as long as you don't either! And between you and me, they are not spirits you want to mess with!" he quipped.

Just like how the older man said, the spirits quickly dashed up to Morey, hovered around him for a bit, and then simply floated away, letting Morey breath out a sigh of relief.

"You'll sigh with relief when they come to the rescue too!" William boomed, "They are quite powerful spirits! And we need all the powerful allies we can get when living here!"

For once Morey agreed with the man, considering how the last two days went. Unfortunately, it seems like allies are going to be a scarce resource. Hell, he considered himself lucky when a creature was just neutral, forget finding one that would go out of its way to help out.

It was quiet in the village now that Morey thought about it. He looked around to find that most of the people around were distant towards him and William looking from afar. Most looks were curious, some were fearful, and others looked at them with distaste. "Are they scared of us?" He asked.

"Ah, well…" William began, his face becoming more somber, "Us seekers...don't have the best reputation, seekers are different from the natives here, in case it wasn't obvious, not everyone who comes here is exactly stable," his expression darkened, "Some let the concept of 'immortality' get to their heads or some simply go insane due to the deaths they experience," he explained, his upbeat voice becoming hollow, "The native people here….they don't enjoy the same abilities we do. They have one life and that's it. Sometimes seekers forget that."

'Yeesh, sorry I asked,' Morey thought to himself. They remained silent throughout the walk through the village, now with a thick air of tension neither of them wanted to address. It wasn't until they reached the gates of the black walls that Morey finally spoke up again.

"Wait what are we doing? I thought I wasn't going to get thrown out!" Morey tensed. It was all a ruse, and like the idiot he was, he fell for-

"No! Of course not!" William quipped with his old cheerful attitude, the tension from before evaporated, "Didn't Maria tell you? I was going to show you the ropes! And what better way to learn that with hands-on experience!" he boomed as he pushed the boy out of the gates, as soon as William was outside the gates shut close.

"Wait...WAIT! Then where's your armor and weapons!" Morey paled.

"Ah, those things? We make them!" William responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Excuse me, what?" Morey yelled. This was not what he expected. He knew the guy was a bit of an idiot, but this was on a whole other level!

"That's going to be your first lesson!" William's smile became larger as he continued, "lesson one is crafting! I'll need whip you into shape soon! You're going to need it if we are to make it to the coliseum!"

"Coliseum?" Morey asked tiredly, "What the hell is that place?"

"Ah, let's not ruin the surprise!" William beamed, as he continued to walk towards the forest, "It'll take at least a week to get there. So we might need to suit up and stock up! Let the training begin!"

"Ok! You know what! You're right! Let's do this!" Morey shouted along with William, as he pumped his fists in the air. "Ok! Where do we start?"

William looked around until he found a pile of gravel on the side of a hill. "Go dig out that gravel!"

"Um...what?" Morey asked.

"Yes! The gravel is essential to everything!" William exclaimed without hesitation, "Now go! Dig! DIG!" he bellowed as he shoved Morey towards the pile of gravel.

"What the hell?! This is stupid! What's next, you're going to tell me to punch the trees?" Morey ranted as his face planted on the pile of gravel. He got up and begrudgingly began digging through the gravel.

"No! Goodness no! That would be ridiculous!" William laughed, "We need a resource that is located there so we can get started!"

"Yeah? And what is it, magic pearls?" Morey snarked as he dug through the pile until he cut himself with something that was in the gravel, he yelped and pulled out his hands, "Agh! What the hell?" he cursed as he hesitantly put his hands back in the pile of gravel. There he felt something smooth with sharp edges, he carefully wrapped his hands around the object then pulled it out of the pile. He looked at it questionably, "What is this?" he asked.

"It's flint of course!" William revealed dramatically.

Morey looked at him unamused. "Ok, and what does it do?" he asked.

"It's the key to your first recipe!" William exclaimed, "Oh! I remember when I first crafted my first knife!"

"How the hell am I supposed to make a knife with just flint!?" Morey barked.

"Well actually first you need to break the flint into shards, then of course we need another ingredient!" William explained.

"You're just talking about ingredients but what about tools? Don't we need tools to get anything done?" Morey asked.

William looked at Morey like he grew a second head, then began to laugh. "Oh my! I forgot how new you are to this world! First fetch a wooden stick, preferably from the branches, it's much easier to grab. Then come back."

Morey had no idea what the man was on about, but decided not to question it. He went to a nearby tree and ripped one of the branches off it.

As soon as he did that a weird tree monster sprouted from the ripped part of the branch and started wrapping its vines around Morey.

"Agh! Fuck! Are you kidding me?!" He screamed as more vines started to wrap around him, draining any strength he had. "Hells no!" he growled as he swung the stick he had on his hand towards the creature. The attack momentarily stunned it, which gave Morey the chance to run. But as soon as he did, the creature gave chase.

It was happening again, he was going to die for sure now. At least, that was what he thought until a flash of gold blasted through the air and directly to the tree monster, slicing it in half.

The creature let out an ear piercing shriek before it fell to the floor and began to twitch uncontrollably. Once it stopped moving it dissolved and all that was left in the floor were tiny glowing green orbs that seemed jingle, a large green crystal, and a bottle of green liquid. That wasn't what Morey was paying attention to however.

What he was looking at was at the man who had his golden blade pointed towards where the monster was at. His eyes were narrowed and his cheery smile was gone. That was the image of a warrior. A warrior Morey decided to stop questioning.

"Uhh…" Morey said dumbly, "I got the stick."

"Haha! I knew you would! Sorry, I forgot to warn you about the spirits that reside in the plants, It completely slipped my mind!" William boomed as he picked up the items that were left behind. The tiny orbs, however, absorbed into his body, while the rest was picked up normally. William then moved his hands to his back and the items disappeared.

"Whoa! How did you do that?" Morey asked.

"It's a trick I'll soon teach you! But first! Let's make that knife!" William shouted.

Morey then pulled out the stick and the shard of flint he had on him, he looked at the items on him. How did he do this? He got the stick and the shard out and said, "Ok, now what?"

William pulled out his own flint shard and stick, "And now, we do this!" He said while the items were on his left hand and as his right hand began to glow. While his hand was glowing, he slowly wrapped it around the item, which in turn caused the items to glow. After a moment of rubbing the items together, his hands revealed a pristine sharp flint knife.

"Holy shit! What the fuck?!" Morey gawked, "How'd you do that?"

"Ha! Don't worry, it's much more simple that you think!" William boasted, "First try to focus your hands. Let the warmth flow onto your hands! After that it's only a matter of connecting the two items in the correct pattern!"

Morey stared at his hands. Was it really that simple? He focused on the sensation on the palm of his hands. A warmth began to flow on his palms and he noticed his hand begin to glow as well. "What the hell? It's really that simple?" he gasped.

"Yes!" William explained excitedly, "A lot of seekers tend to overthink it and it makes it harder to achieve it! Don't overthink! Put the items the way that makes most sense."

That would be the flint shard over the stick right? He organized them on his palm and copied what William did. Soon the glow transferred onto the items as well, and after a bit of rubbing a knife was formed, although not as pristine as William's it still had a sharp edge.

"Oh shit, I did it!" Morey exclaimed.

"Haha! Yes I see! We can move on to the next step!" William shouted excitedly.

"Next step? Bring it on!" Morey barked.

The next steps were a somewhat tedious chore of collecting string off of the grass blades, where thankfully no weird creature came out again. Afterwards he was to make a flint hatchet using the same principles but using the string as a way to strengthen the bond between the stick and the flint shards. Afterwards, they were to make a table, which was also much simpler than Morey thought, using their hands as if they were welding machines that connected the wooden planks that they chopped together to make a table. William added the finishing touches by adding a three by three grid on the table.

"Uhm, what's the table for?" Morey asked.

"Why that's for more advanced crafting!" William explained loudly, "Think of the grid as a way to channel the magic in our hands to make more complicated contraptions! Like weapons and armor!"

"Wow, that makes a lot more sense," Morey sighed, "Alright let's make some powerful gear then!"

"Slow down there young man!" William laughed, "You're not strong enough to swing anything heavier than iron right now!"

"What?" Morey growled, "Are you kidding me!"

"Calm down boy! There are ways to get stronger! You just need to collect soul fragments!"

"Soul fragments? I heard Maria mention that," Morey said thoughtfully, although still annoyed, "Was it those tiny orbs that you got from killing that tree thing?"

"You're sharp, boy! Maria wasn't wrong about you!" William quipped, "But yes that is one of the best ways to gain soul fragments if you're to be a fighter! Now then, craft your first weapon!"

"Out of what though?" Morey asked.

"Why stone of course, it's the toughest material we can work with!" William piped.

"But we don't have any...oh," Morey sighed as William held a pickaxe and gestured to him at the crafting table.

The next couple of hours were spent on a cave, one that William insisted to be lit up. "No need for unwanted intruders!" He joked. He became quiet when Morey's deadpan face let him know that he was quite familiar with the dark creatures."

Thankfully the mining went uneventfully, and Morey got enough material to work on his weapon back at the table.

William recommended sticking with a basic weapon such as a generic sword or axe, but that only intrigued Morey on the more elaborate weapons. William then pulled out an old journal full of crafting recipes that were mainly in weapons. The one Morey chose was a saber.

"Hmm... a saber! Quite the advanced weapon, are you sure?" William asked.

"Yeah," Morey said as he began preparing the recipe. Afterwards when his hands began to glow, he slowly fused the material together, one by one the material would glow a bright white light that slowly melted together. Morey then began shaping the blade to become curved and connected to the pole that he made as well. He rushed a bit, but he was excited! His own weapon! His own form of defense! Finally the world will not beat him down anymore!

Until he saw his crude blade.

The sides were chipped, and the backside was uneven. Morey ran his hands across the saber and noticed it felt rough. He put a finger on the sharp edge, only for him to notice how dull it is to the knife he made earlier.

Noticing Morey's down look, William uneasily said, "Well, don't be discouraged! The blade will function as it's supposed to! But it takes practice to perfect a blade! So don't worry!"

Morey didn't say anything until he noticed the sunsetting in the sky. All he let out was an "Uh oh…"

"Oh the sun sets! Now onto our next lesson!" William boomed excitedly, "Combat!"

The night consisted of a lot of running, hiding in holes, sneak attacks, a couple of one on ones against certain monsters, and a lot of William saving Morey's ass.

Thankfully the night was very informative. Morey learned that the green bastards were slow and clumsy, making them the easiest monsters to kill. Skeletons were a different story, since they constantly shot volleys of arrows at the duo making them a difficult matchup unless there was a way to block the arrows. The tall bastards were not to be made eye contact with at all cost. William told him that those guys were out of his reach for now. They also ran into a couple of weird spirits, which at first they looked intimidating, but in the end, they all fell to the duo. Well, it was mostly due to William.

It wasn't due to Morey's lack of trying, but his saber can only get him so far. William's golden blade was capable of slicing through enemies like butter.

And that was their new routine the next couple of days. Just fighting their way through. Monster after monster they all fell to William and Morey, some giving off edible meats to eat, such as the dinosaurs that Morey was afraid of before. They were surprisingly tasty though.

Finally after a little over a week, the coliseum was in full view. Both looked over the building. Morey was a mess. His sword was on the verge of breaking, he was covered in injuries, and he looked exhausted. Meanwhile, William was looking fresh, beside a couple of tears on his leather clothing.

"Haha! You're a fast learner Morey!" He boomed.

"Yeah, thanks…" Morey said tiredly.

"But now! The real training can begin!" William beamed.

Morey stared at William.

"Excuse me what?" He squeaked.

"Get used to this place! Because it'll be our new home!" William exclaimed, as he pushed Morey towards the coliseum.

"Excuse me what?!" Morey yelled as he was pushed into the coliseum.


	6. Foolish Coliseum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lets get on with the madness.

The coliseum was made out of stone that was smoothed over with a clean polish despite being in the middle of nowhere. It’s enormous size made it an easy building to spot, add to the fact that William seemed to memorize the location, they didn’t have trouble finding the spot. 

Although, that really didn’t explain why they had to go so far just to reach this place. Despite it’s clean exterior, there was no sapient life around the building. In fact, it was practically abandoned. Besides the duo, no one else was here. 

The coliseum itself was pretty standard interior as well, since it contained rows and rows of seats surrounding the stadium in the center. Everything surrounding the stadium was made of the same material as the outside, while the middle section a shiny black material was made in the middle. When they made it to the center after going through the gates, Morey saw 4 massive gates across from where they entered from. Thankfully there were no signs of life in any of the gates. 

Underneath the coliseum seats from where they entered there were multiple rooms that were left open where inside Morey could see many weapons scattered messily around the weapon racks, rusted lockers rooms, some having their doors busted open, and a bench with paint peeling off the wood. Walking a bit further there was another much larger room that was full of boxes of wheat, carrots, apples, potatoes, and some red plants Morey didn’t recognize.

William told him to wait inside while he went to what Morey assumed was the food room. He was left in the center of the building, taking in the sight. It looked so alien. Compared to the Roman Colosseum from his world, this one was clean and still standing. There were a couple of chips here and there, but the main foundations were still holding strong. 

Morey walked over to the other gates across the stadium. Looking closer at the gates, he saw they were made out of iron but no latches or locks were in sight, making him wonder how they would have opened those gates. 

Despite the alien setting, Morey never felt more comfortable during his time in Yumesueno.

_ “Another knockout! Mr. Anderson goes for another flawless victory!” The announcer screamed on the microphone. It was shocking to those who didn’t know who the boxer was. He looked so scrawny compared to the beefy fighter he was going up against. _

_ Morey stood over his opponent. His breath was ragged but he was fine. The fighter on the ground however, had his face broken with his eyes swollen shut, his cheeks puffed, and his nose leaking blood out like a faucet. The fighter was still conscious though, so he wasn’t a complete loser. Morey was sure that he was strong in his own right, but unfortunately they put the poor guy up against him. Somehow they thought some rookie with some extra weight to throw around would take him on. Idiots… _

_ Morey wasn’t even smiling when the announcer was yelling about the next match and kissing his ass. Fighting hadn’t been as fun anymore. He hoped this tournament would get him the rush he wanted. Those bullies he beat up for the rat didn’t do much for him.  _

_ Even if it was still satisfying punching a guy who was getting too big of an ego, that wasn’t what he was looking for. He trained so hard to match up with the strongest people he knew. His instructor was still above him in terms of technique, but everyone in the same gym who had the same weight class as him would refuse to fight with him, meaning he probably outclassed them by now. He tried fighting some of the older boxers. It was fun, but without an official referee, he could never go all out. Then again, he has seen how hard his seniors could punch the heavy bag. He did not want to be on the receiving end of that.  _

_ That still left him with the dilemma, the lack of good fights. Well, there were two more rounds before the finals. There should be at least one decent fighter.  _

_ Deciding that overthinking it wasn’t worth it, Morey decided to head to the bathroom to wipe himself off. He was already getting bored with the current fight. That’s when he met her.  _

_ Betty Whites, a brunette who was passing by the hallways, bumped against Morey Anderson. Their first exchange wasn’t anything all that special, but it brought about a change that would affect him for a long time.  _

_ “Oh, sorry,” he said distractedly. _

_ The girl was clearly caught off guard with bumping into him. But it wasn’t for the reason Morey thought before. “Oh! It’s you!” She spouted. _

_ Morey looked at her quizzically, she was wearing a green unzipped tracksuit that exposed a t-shirt that said PAIN in big bold letters, atop of her head was a cap that matched the color scheme of her tracksuit, a long ponytail sticking out from the back. His stare must have been intense because it immediately caused her to blush and begin frantically explaining herself. _

_ “I-it's not like I was stalking you or anything, it’s just that in your fights…” she straightened herself up, “ Your fight, it was amazing. Not only were you on top of your forms but you fought like a monster!” she paused to look around the hallways, she then leaned in closer to Morey, he could feel her breath on his ears, “Between you and me, you seem to be one of the few who knows how a good fight should go.” _

_ That got his attention, she was a weird girl, but he decided to humor her and responded, “Yeah well, I feel like I don’t really have good fights anymore.” _

_ She laughed, “Oho! You gonna retire so early?” _

_ This time Morey chuckled, “Not until I find a good opponent.” _

_ “What’ll you do if you find your soulmate?” she asked cheekily. _

_ “Probably act like a clingy girlfriend and never let them go,” Morey retorted. _

_ This time she snickered, much quieter than before, “You’re really that desperate for a good fight? You sound pretty confident.” _

_ “I would say I’m pretty cocky, but I think at this point I’m just undermining myself trying to find a good opponent. Haven’t really found a good match for myself,” he sighed. _

_ She leaned towards him again and whispered, “Don’t give up yet, you’ll find what you’re looking for,” She leant back and winked at him, “Don’t worry! The real fun’ll begin soon!” she called out as she walked away. _

_ Morey watched her disappear to the crowd, wondering what that was about. She was definitely different from the average girl, then again girls aren’t really keen on watching guys beat each other up. Maybe she came with her boyfriend, but then again, she would have been talking badly about him, that is unless her boyfriend is one of his next opponents.  _

_ If that was true, that would suck, She seemed nice. He wasn’t sure how she would feel if he fought her boyfriend. Hopefully he’ll put up a fight. _

_ Morey stuck his arms in his jacket pocket and walked to the bathroom, thinking it wasn’t really worth overthinking, only to stop, and feel around his pockets only to find a piece of paper. He pulled it out and looked it over. _

_ It was a little post-it note that was folded up into a tiny square. When Morey unfolded it, he saw a message written there saying “Call me! I’d love to chat!” with a little heart drawn next to it. Underneath all of that was a phone number. _

_ It was obviously a joke, he just met her there was no way she would just give him her number. _

_ Right? _

Morey turned around and saw William walking up to him with a crate full of fruits and vegetables. Each crate, which was the size of his torso, held up with ease.

“You ready?” William grinned.

“What is all that?” Morey asked.

“Just some provision for when we train here!” William explained, as he set each crate on the side. He walked over and tapped on the walls. Before Morey could ask what he was doing, one of the walls opened up, there were beds set inside.

“Ah! Here we go!” William cheered. He set the crates in one room, then went on to tap against the walls again, only for another section to open up and for William to do the same. “These will be our rooms!”

“Isn’t it inconvenient to have the rooms set up right next to the stadium?” Morey asked.

“Ah, well...those are late design choices,” William said uneasily. 

“How late?” Morey probed.

“Very late! Now let's get started!” William shouted evasively as he dragged Morey back to the locker rooms. 

“You still owe me an explanation!” Morey shouted as he was dragged back inside. Once they reached the locker rooms, Morey noticed all the weapons scattered around were made of wood, iron, silver, copper, gold, and even diamond.

“Whoa, what the hell?” Morey said, surprised at the material most of the weapons were made out of. “What is up with these,” he said as he tried, and failed miserably, to pick up a halberd made out of the precious blue crystal. “Why are they so heavy?” He grunted. 

“It’s like I said!” William laughed, “You’re still not ready to pick up those weapons! Try that iron axe there!”

Morey went over to a rusted axe that was set next to the lockers, it was one of the smaller weapons there compared to the swords and hammers that were scattered around, a small handle and smaller blade, yet despite its rusted sides, it still looked very sharp. He managed to lift it up, but was surprised how heavy it was. Compared to his saber that he made when they came here, the axe was definitely heavier and harder to swing around accurately.

“What!?” Morey barked, “What is up with that item?”

“Nothing!” William reassured, “It’s something that all seekers have to understand. The difficulty of using a weapon isn’t on its weight or size, but instead its material!”

“The material? Why? Wouldn’t it make more sense, for the size affects its weight more?” Morey asked. 

“It does!” William answered, “But the material causes a much larger change than the size of a weapon! Don’t be discouraged! We can start with that simple stone saber you had!”

“That old thing? Hell no!” Morey yelled, “It’s terrible and it’s on the verge of breaking!”

“Now, now. Never insult your own creations,” William lectured, his voice uncharacteristically low, “They were made by the materials you obtained yourself, and crafted by your own hands. It was your first weapon and currently the only one you can wield well. Even if it is crude, it is your starting point into more amazing possibilities! Not to mention, you can refine it,” he added. 

That got Morey’s attention. “Really?” he asked, “How?”

William pulled out a pickaxe.

After a couple of hours mining in a cave near the coliseum they came back with various goods.Morey was mostly carrying stone that they collected from the caves, along in the large sack was some meat they got from unfortunate animals that crossed their path. Once again, Morey looked exhausted, since this time they did not light up the cave well. So on the way back there was an infestation of monsters on the way back.

It wasn’t just the average zombies either, the big teeth, 3 eyed bastards were back with a vengeance. Along with that they also brought a couple of friends as well. Ghastly creatures stuck in petrified screams floating around holding an eyeball on each hand were also there to join in on the fun. 

Worst of all, William couldn’t fight at full force, since he left his golden sword, or as Morey learned he dubbed it: his lucky blade back at the coliseum. It apparently “slipped his mind.” Which left Morey having to fight with his chipped blade, while William was forced to craft a stone weapon as well. A Halberd.

Ironically enough, even the stone blade William made was perfect. No chips and completely smooth. Of course...

Morey attempted to fight off the eyeball freaks, but the green bastards were already a handful, and the big teeth freaks were floating around snapping their jaws at him. Thankfully this time he wasn’t helpless. Even just swinging his blade was enough to keep them at bay. But it wasn’t enough. He had to go faster, but the saber was beginning to weigh on him.

Then William came swinging.

Unlike with his golden blade, where a simple swing of his sword was enough to slice up the enemies, William was going all out with the stone weapon he had, swinging it around like a madman. Gusts of wind were blowing around him as he swung, blowing many of the creatures back. He screams somehow managed to even get the flying abominations to hesitate in attacking him. He was the monster to them. 

Seeing William fight them gave Morey new vigor, allowing him to keep pushing forward. With William blowing many of the monsters back, Morey would swoop in and slice them in where he would consider to be vital areas. For the zombies, he aimed for their necks, for the floaty guys, he went for the eyes. No wasted movement, go for the vitals. Don’t overreach. Keep your hands up. Those were the principles for any fight. The saber was light, but it was still a test of endurance.

Morey didn’t remember how long they fought for, all he remember was William yelling something about a new toy, Morey running to a table, his sword coming out less terrible, and returning to the fight, and getting to the coliseum when the moon was shining high up in the night sky. 

This time, both were worse for wear. Well, for William he seemed more tired than hurt. He still had his toothy grin on him when they got back. As for Morey, he just wished for the day to finally be over. That was until the old bastard led him to the locker rooms again. There around the corner was an anvil with a slab of white stone, and black stone underneath as support for everything.

“What now?” Morey fumed.

“Now! Now! Didn’t you want to reforge your weapon?” William laughed. 

“Can’t this wait till tomorrow?” The young boy barked, “In case you didn’t know. I’m exhausted!”

“Ah well...I guess you can find out how the reforging station works on your own tomorrow!” William laughed.

“Ugh! Fine!” Morey shouted, “Show me!” 

“Ok,” William boomed enthusiastically as he picked up a rusty iron axe off the ground, “Here we go!”

He then put the axe atop the forge, where a soft glow rose from the anvil and slowly spread towards the white tiles above it. Once the top was glowing, only the metal part of the axe glowed instead of the entire tool like Morey expected.

Once it began to glow William placed the small block of metal ingot on top of the tool. Once the two objects connected, his hand began to glow, melting the iron on top of the rusted axe. Once the material merged with the axe the older man began to shape it again, this time smoothing the sides over with his fingers as if he was molding clay. He then held up the tool so that the sharp part was pointing upward, using only two of his fingers, and he began sharpening the tool by slowly pinching it repeatedly taking out any excessive material. 

It was a slow and meticulous process, but once it was done, a brand new shiny axe was formed. Not only that but it seemed to give an air of gracefulness to it. It was better than new.

“Woah,” Was all Morey was able to sputter. 

“Haha! Now are you glad we stayed up a bit for this lesson!” William shouted with his usual eagerness, showing off the axe in his hands by lightly swinging it.

“Can you do that with any weapon?” Morey asked as he inspected the forge, placing his hand over it. He looked over to his chipped saber, and then to William’s stone halberd. He really needed to get better with his weapons.

“Of course! With the correct materials you can continuously work on it!” William beamed. 

“Welp, I know what I’m going to do tonight,” Morey sighed as he put his weapon on the forge.

“Ah! Well then, I’ll head to bed!” William said as he quickly walked out the room. “Ah yes, Morey!” He shouted as he poked his head back in, “Don’t forget to close the gate! the lever is near the entrances ok?” William explained.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Morey said dismissively as he held a shard of stone over his saber, trying to find an angle to place it.

“You sure?” William chuckled, if Morey was paying attention he would’ve noticed William’s stifling a laugh, “Well then! I won’t keep you!”

  
  


The night went on with Morey working on the forge with only a torch nearby as light, the rest of the coliseum was dark. Unfortunately, in the darkness was also a lot of activity, mostly the shuffling of zombies that had entered the building, that Morey failed to notice, since he was too busy trying to imitate what William was doing.

  
  


“Damn how the hell does he do it?” he growled as he saw no improvements to his blade. How did he make it...better?

Wait, he used his fingers on the axe! Not a sword! Sword was bigger. Also the soft material was really off putting in creating a deadly weapon, since it was, well... soft. But having the mentality of clay really helped. But it still wasn’t what he was looking for.

Hearing all the noise outside was also really starting to get to Morey. It was constantly coming out chipped or cracked, and the noise only made it harder for him to concentrate.

In his anger he went to go outside to see what the commotion was in the hallways only to come face to face with a small horde of zombies and skeletons. He looked over the open gate, then back to the zombies. Time stood still for a moment, until Morey slammed the door shut. That caused all the zombies to crash into the door. He knew the door wouldn’t hold, and his crappy blade was not going to do well against the horde. He had to fix his blade now!

He began to frantically work on the blade while cursing to himself, he needed it to not be terrible for fuck sakes! The slams to the door were getting more frequent, and the rusty door was not going to hold. He could already hear the bolts snapping. He had to work fast. He had to work faster! Faster!

Right?

He stopped, and looked at his pitiful blade. It was pathetic, just like him. He thought he could make it out there, but now he was wondering if that was really true. He had to rely on William for everything that had to do with survival. Food, weapons, and fighting were mainly done by him. He couldn’t go on like this. What was he going to do?

“I needed help,” Morey thought out loud while the door began to slowly break open, “I need help…”

‘I gotta thank William for all that he’s done….’ Now that was a weird thought. But how can he thank him? He can’t even fix is stupid sword, he had to work….slower! He’s gotta slow down! But how did he do that when the horde was seconds from breaking the door open. No, he had one chance to fix his blade. He had to work efficiently, not fast.

Morey slowly began working on the blade again, this time taking his time. He tuned out the noises from the outside. This was not like fighting, he had to be careful. He felt pissed. He felt like shit. He felt like he did all those years ago, but he couldn’t let that distract him, put those feelings out through the fists, or in this case, the blade. 

When the glow went down, his saber looked much newer, the top part shrunk a bit, but the thing that caught Morey’s eye was how jagged it was. The blade looked like it had teeth, not in a bad way. It looked clean, but vicious.

Perfect.


	7. Trial of the Tryhard

Morey held his blade in front of him, readying himself for the oncoming slaughter. He held his breath as the door blew open.

“Come at me assholes!” he snarled as the horde charged at him.

Then all hell broke loose.

The screams of humanoid creatures filled the room, rattling Morey’s ears. That didn’t stop him from slashing at them though. His body was sore, his mind was in shambles, and he was pretty sure he was getting scratched all around his limbs, but he never felt more alive. 

While swinging his blade around like a madman, he began to back up looking for a place to climb up, finding a locker next to the weapons rack, he quickly climbed up the rack, purposely knocking it down so that the horde wouldn’t follow him. 

Once he was atop the lockers, he looked down and saw the undead creatures climbing upon each other like stepping stones in order to reach him. 

One managed to reach Morey and swipe at him, only for him to cut its arm off and kick it back down. 

More were starting to follow its example and they slowly started piling among themselves around the lockers. 

Morey in a panic looked around where to go. He was surrounded, and he was sure that he could not take on a horde all on his own, not without help. He was tough, he knew that, but he was a short guy, which meant he was also naturally smaller in the weight department too. He didn’t win all his fights by blindly rushing at someone, he always had a plan, a weakness to work with. 

‘Ok, they’re stupid, but have enough intelligence to work as a hive mind,’ Morey reminded himself from the lessons he got from William, at the same time he kicked off another undead bastard off the locker. They would blindly chase him anywhere and they were fast, but not as fast as him. People that say fleeing is a cowardly move have clearly never been in a life or death situation, or are willing to gamble their life away, because right now his best bet was an escape route, despite having a vicious blade on him.

At the very least he’s going to need more spac-The stadium! There was plenty of room there, but more importantly: William was there.

After a bit of scanning around the area, Morey soon realized that the only way to get out of the locker rooms was to jump across each locker towards the exit. 

‘Damn,’ he thought to himself, as another undead reached the top, ‘Gonna have to jump. A lot…’

There’s no time to think, only do. Do something incredibly stupid, but it was the only way to leave this room in one piece. 

He readied himself for the jump as soon as multiple undeads managed to get to the top.

He jumped across the gap, and landed on the nearest locker, but as soon as he jumped, the horde immediately switched targets and began to ram their bodies at the locker. Turns out the rusty lockers he was on were incredibly fragile, and the lockers began to tilt. 

Morey quickly jumped to the next locker, only for the horde to follow and knock that one down. Soon it became a domino effect and multiple lockers began to fall to the sides, knocking others with them.

He scrambled around as each locker he landed on would then fall to the side and, if he was lucky, crushing some undeads on the way down. He was almost to the exit, so close. One more locker to jump, and he’ll be free, but then one zombie intercepted him.

“Oh fuck!” Morey yelled as he stopped for a moment, it was brief, but it was enough time for the horde to knock down the locker he was on. As soon as he lost his footing, he jumped in a panic to the nearest object he could, a zombie’s head. 

In fact, there were several zombie heads to step on that bridged to the exit. He hopped once, twice, and in the third jump he landed on the door. 

“Ahaha!” He jeered, only to immediately run again as the horde dashed to him. 

He ran across the hallway, now trying to remember where the rooms William opened up in the arena were located. 

Once Morey reached the arena, he began to frantically knock around the walls around the area while the horde of freaks continued to pursue him, hoping one would open up. None did. Why didn’t they open up? And where the hell was William?!

Of course he didn’t have time to ponder this as one of the faster undeads caught up to him and swiped at his back. The leather he was wearing was thick, but it was already worn out. So when the zombie’s attack landed, its nails reached Morey.

“Agh! Fuck!” he cursed, as he swiped his saber at the assailant, but when he swung, the force behind his blade was beyond what he intended, not to mention he missed, and that caused him to stumble forward a bit allowing the undead to land another scratch, this time on his face. 

Morey growled as he jumped back, mitigating what could have been a devastating attack down to a simple scratch on his cheek, while reprimanding himself for making such a rookie mistake. Still, swords were not something he was unfamiliar with, it was like an extension of his limbs, but also extra weight when he swung. Unlike with his fists where he had more control of his punches or a staff where he could grab the handle anywhere, the sword was much harder to maneuver. 

He looked on to the horde that was catching up, even if he was terrible with the blade, he shouldn’t be looking at these zombies as a huge threat. Just one or two swings were enough to beat one. He just needed to know when to land his attacks. 

As soon as Morey dodged the next attack by the current zombie, which tried to tackle him and stumbled forward, he raised his saber up and swung down on the back of its neck. Instant defeat.

He tried to count how many were currently left, but the horde was moving in on him fast making him have to make a run for it around the flat arena. 

Outnumbered and alone were two things Morey were not unfamiliar with. He had his fair share of enemies, those that wanted him gone, those that hated him for being better, and those that failed to kill him. 

Well, there was one person that almost did.

He felt an arrow whiz by, barely missing by a hair breath, ‘it’s not the time to think about that’ he reprimanded himself. He turned and saw the culprits. At the entrance of the arena some skeletons and even a couple of zombies had bows in their arms, ready to fire. 

Quickly he turned and ran straight through the group of zombies behind him as he heard the swish of multiple arrows raining down behind him. At the same time the horde of zombies all began to rush him. 

Yep, this was very familiar.

_ “Get him!” One of the idiots yelled as he threw a punch, only for it to hit air. Others followed and began throwing their fair share of punches. _

_ Morey latched his pipe to his back again and began to weave around each of the bullies’ clumsy attempts at attacks. Once he got through the group he turned around, a scowl on his face.  _

_ “So you guys were the ones giving Rat Tim trouble?” _

Many of the zombies got skewered by the arrows that were meant for him. Most fell, although some tried to limp towards him, and some more were still up and running. 

What was strange, however, some of them turned to the perpetrators and with a snarl threw their bodies onto the archers. Of course, Morey wouldn’t look a gifted horse in the mouth and instead focused on the few zombies that were left.

_ There were about 6 of them left. Only two had any actual training. The other four seemed to have done weights and had some decent muscle mass on them, but otherwise just cannon fodder.  _

_ Of course Morey knew he was smaller than each of these guys, and he was outnumbered, yet, as he pulled out his pipe from the back, he couldn’t help but grin. _

_ “The hells so funny?” One of the “big boys” barked, “You think you won just cuz you got sum us beat? Ya just lucky!” _

_ “Yeah!” a cannon fodder agreed, “You got all the small fries! But now you’re fucking with real men now!” _

_ Morey’s smile only grew as he said, “That’s the kind of confidence I like to hear,” he then looked up at them with a more predatory grin, “You better back it up,” he threatened. _

_ “Fuck you!” _

A zombie swiped at him, causing him to jump to the side. Another went for his face, he blocked it with his saber. A third one went for his chest, in response Morey twisted his body to knock the previous zombie down with his saber to take the hit. It landed.

The zombie howled as the scratches got etched across its back, Morey silenced it with a vicious slash to the chest. Two more showed up afterward, both charging with their arms flailing. 

He blocked both zombies with the sharp end of his blade, causing for blood to seep out of their arms. He pushed them back, causing them to stagger back.

_ “Oh fuck!” a cannon fodder yelled. _

_ “How the hell did he push back our top fighters?” another gawked.  _

_ The two “top fighters” fell to the ground screaming and gripping their arms, which were badly bruised after their failed attack. Morey stood unmoved with his pipe held horizontally in front of him. The sinister smile not leaving his face. _

_ “I told you guys better back up your words,” He growled, as he put his pipe in front of him, readying a strike. His two opponents rose up their arms in defense, as the cannon fodders watched on in horror.  _

_ One stupid fodder tried to intercept him from behind. _

“Graaghh!” the zombie growled as it attempted its sneak attack.

_ The pipe landed straight on the idiot’s face, he didn’t even have time to scream in pain as he fell unconscious and slowly went down, his nose crushed. _

Morey didn’t have time to look at his handiwork as the two armless zombies got up and decided that attacking with their teeth would be a better idea. 

_ “You bastard!” one of the two bosses roared and attempted to go for a cross punch to avenge his little buddy. Morey ducked under the punch and jab his stomach with his pipe, knocking air out of the guy. _

The zombie fell back to the ground, a large gash etched across its stomach, with all its content spilling out everywhere. The other one was a bit luckier, since it only managed to survive, even if it was with a wound.

_ “Dammit! Who the hell is this guy!” The last standing boss shouted as his roundhouse kick missed Morey by an inch. The boss followed up with a heel kick, which then Morey blocked with his pipe. At that moment the boss smiled. _

“Agh! Fuck!” Morey screamed as an arrow grazed his side. He turned to see who was the wise guy, only for another arrow to be shot at him. That time he dodges, but temporarily forgets about the armless zombie.

“ _ Dammit!” he grunted as the spiked knuckle duster landed on his shoulders. Those few seconds bought the bastard enough time to land a nasty strike on him. _

_ “Haha! Where’s all that bravado now, you-” _

Morey grabbed it’s teeth and forced them open. Despite the wound he got, he shoved the zombie back. Of course that action caused pain to spike up on the bite, and more blood to seep out of it, but he didn’t care, he was mad.

_ “What the fuck?” the assailant screamed as Morey grabbed his arms and pulled out the spike, “Doesn’t that hurt?!” _

_ Morey didn’t answer and instead went for a right hook across the idiot’s jaw. He followed up with a pipe jab that landed on the assailant’s chest.  _

The zombie fell as Morey pulled out his jagged blade, a blade that made the action bloodier. His shoulder still hurt like hell, but he tried his best to ignore it. He wouldn’t last, he knew it.

Another arrow wiz by, grazing his cheek this time, so he quickly turned and went for the archers. To his surprise, there were only two archers left. The rest of them were killed by the undeads that turned on them when they got shot. Of course there was still quite a bit of distance between him and the archers. 

_ There was no way that he could make it before being pelted with those metal pellets, and there was no cover to run to either, instead he opted for dashing at the last two cannon fodder. One held up the airsoft gun and began to let out a barrage of pellets at him. Morey ran covering his face and threw the pipe at the two offenders. They both attempted to dodge, unfortunately for them, the one who held the gun had been standing closer and was unable to react in time as the pipe smacked him on the forehead.  _

_ The other cannon fodder managed to back up enough for his friend to take the hit. Unfortunately, he stumbled backwards, which cost him a precious second.  _

Morey dashed forward as the meatless archer, by quickly grabbing his blade off the wall, he managed to finish the skeleton off with a slash to the head. As he pried his saber off the skull, the other archer managed to load up another arrow.

_ He wasted no time as tried to close the distance between him and the last fodder, but the fodder managed to grab a hold of the airsoft gun and make a run for it.  _

_ Morey gave chase, and once he caught up he grabbed him by the neck. _

_ “AH! NO!” The fodder screamed as he unloaded the rest of the clip onto Morey’s stomach.  _

“Fuck off!” Morey roared as he swung the saber in a horizontal arc, slicing the skeleton’s head clean off. Then everything went silent. 

He looked around the stadium. It was a shitshow. There were bodies all over, but not nearly as many he originally thought. Now that he had time to breath, he was able to look around and count how many freaks chased him around. 

There were twelve of them. Half of them got killed off among themselves, which meant he took on six by himself. Six assholes, by himself.

‘Still got it,’ he thought to himself.

A traitorous thought told him, ‘those were weak monsters, and you’re almost dead.’

He looked down and saw the arrow stuck to his stomach. He tried to move his right arm to try and dislodge it only for pain to spike up on the bite mark he had. He was covered in blood, and the bleeding hadn't stopped. He soon realized how lightheaded he felt.

‘Damn...it,’ he thought as he fell.

Only to be caught by William, still smiling brightly at him.

“W-william…?” Morey uttered.

“You did good, take it easy now,” William said, as he closed Morey’s eyes.

For the first time, Morey had a nice dreamless sleep. 


	8. Year Long Tutorial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up! I won't give up on this story just yet. I got plans. Big plans. Hopefully people will pick up on it. Maybe once I hit 100k words people will start paying attention? I'll get there if I have to!
> 
> Anyways enough rambling, lets get on with the madness.

_ “What hell do you want?” _

_ “Just...to talk.” _

_ “No.” _

_ “Oh come on! You know that this conversation has long been overdue.” _

_ “Fuck off.” _

_ “Real mature dude.” _

_ “I don’t need you!” _

_ “You almost died! Again!”  _

_ “I was careless.” _

_ “Damn right you were! When will you realize that you need help?” _

_ “When I actually need help.” _

_ “Like before?” _

_ “That was different!” _

_ What about with Beatrice?” _

_ “Fuck you.” _

_ “You didn’t answer my-”  _

_ I’m done with this conversation, bye.” _

_ “Calling this a conversation is pushing it.” _

_ “Yeah I’m done.” _

When Morey regained consciousness, he found himself staring at the ceiling, wondering what just happened. Thinking back, he remembered his battle against the horde. He remembered how he almost died in the battle back then. He really needs to do better. 

Before he could continue to ponder on his lack of combat prowess, the man of the hour bursted into the room with his usual demeanor. 

“Morey! How are you feeling!” William yelled as he strolled into the room.

The boy in question shot up from the bed, then immediately regretted it when a stabbing pain hit him in his stomach and shoulder.

“Easy now! There are some pretty nasty wounds you got inflicted with!” William said.

“What the hell happened?” Morey groaned. 

“Well you got into quite a scuffle with a couple of undead monsters! It was quite the scene!” William piped.

“Wait,” Morey said as his mind fully woke up, “You were watching the whole time!” he realized when his mind was fully awake, “Not to mention you knew what was going to happen when you left me in the reforging station! Why didn’t you help out?” He accused me.

William gave a sheepish smile, “Well, I was watching, and yes I did know, but you know why I didn’t help.”

“Why is that?” Morey asked, still peeved at him for leaving him out to the wolves, or in that case, zombies.

“You really don’t know?” William responded, “Think about how I saved you multiple times before we even reached the coliseum. How did you feel?”

Morey pondered on William’s words. He did save him multiple times before they even got here, but how did that make him feel? Easy, he felt terrible. 

_ “C’mon lil Timmy! Put your back into it!” Morey shouted as he stood over the little boy that was currently faced down on the floor.  _

_ “I-I’m trying!” The Rat complained, “But you’re asking for too much!” _

_ “It’s only 100 push ups, even your frail body can handle that if you quit being such a pussy!” Morey growled, “You’re even doing them by sets!” _

_ “But I’ve never done anything like this before!” Lil Timmy complained already doing his 6th set. _

_ “Well you better get used to it,” Morey warned, “You’re the one who wanted this. And I sure as hell ain’t gonna hold your hand for this.” _

_ “Y-Yeah! I don’t want help anyways!” The Rat shot back, “I got in this mess on. My. Own!” he emphasized each word as he did each push up. It would have been impressive if his arms didn’t give up immediately after and cause his face to be planted on the floor again. _

_ “Right,” Morey said unsurely.  _

“I get it,” Morey finally said. It was obvious that William was never intending for him to die, and if he saved him instead of testing him of course Morey would feel awful.

Yet despite all the wounds, he never felt better now after the battle he won.

“Thanks...” Morey muttered.

“Don’t mention it,” William chuckled. He then got up and began to do some light stretching, “Now you best be prepared for today.”

“Why,” Morey asked as he tried to prop himself up again, the injuries he had were less painful now. 

“Because now, your true training begins!” William boomed enthusiastically. 

“Wait then what was all that before!” Morey exclaimed. 

“Why, that was for me to figure out your attitude towards fights!” William explained.

“Attitude towards fights?” Morey questioned, “What does that mean? And what did I get?” 

“Well, the attitude is basically how you handle a life or death battle. Some play strategically, cowardly, graceful, stubborn, etcetera, the list goes on.”

“So what was my attitude?” Morey asked. 

“Yours?” William said as he walked out of the room, “Vicious, savage,” He paused, and right as he left he finished, “and fearful.”

Morey would later understand what he meant. 

First Month.

The training consisted of basic swordplay, along with a new tool that William insisted Morey on adapting to. The shield.

Morey was reluctant at first. 

“No way! that thing looks clunky as hell!” he complained, “It won’t work well with me!”

“Morey! The shield will be the reason whether you live or die! Not to mention the saber is one handed! You need something else on your left!” William lectured, “The saber can protect you decently, but you will need more when battling bigger beasts. And I’m not just talking about monsters.”

Morey still looked unconvinced, that was until their next spar, where right after they began William pulled out a crossbow, and a few seconds later Morey was left on the ground clutching his thigh, which had an arrow sticking out of it.

“What the hell?! That wasn’t fair!” Morey barked as he tried to pry the arrow off.

“What?” William teased, “You don’t think enemies will use projectiles to take you down?”

“Fine you made your point!”

Third Month.

For the past two months Morey had worked to strengthen his arms to swing his sword around more proficiently, along with trying to multitask with the shield. 

William explained the concept of shield bashing, something surprising very few people can do well. It's not just about whacking someone with the shield, but timing a good hit to rattle an opponent. Not much strength is required if the timing is right. If the timing was off, however, it can be punished harshly. Something Morey learned many times the hard way.

No one visited them, beside one person, Maria. Who would sometimes come with her daughter, who Morey later learned her name to be Jewel. She was a girl who was born during a dragon attack, along with a disaster what William called the Cinderfall, and survived the entire ordeal. Maria claimed that Jewel was born right after the dragon was killed and the cinders fell, leaving behind a precious gem. One both parents had no idea what it did. But their baby seemed to like it so they named their baby after the unknown jewelry.

“It’s such a nice story,” Morey said, “But you know what would’ve made it more enjoyable?”

“What?” Maria asked, both William and her were facing out one of the windows from the second floor of the Colosseum, which was a library with a fireplace settled in the middle, when reminiscing the birth of their child. 

“If this damn brat gets off me!” Morey screamed. Jewel was currently riding on Morey’s shoulders and pulling his hair having the time of her life.

“Go! Go! Horsey!” Jewel laughed, now more comfortable than ever with the short saber wielding menace, much to his misery.

This wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t decide to stick his neck out for the girl that night when he heard crying outside his room. He was in the bathroom when he heard the little brat crying about being lost. She only cried louder when he got out to try and get her to shut up. He could have left her, but no! His mother drilled into his head that children should still be treated with the utmost care, and unfortunately he couldn’t exactly shake the image of the women giving off her “not mad, just disappointed” face to him. 

So he ended up having to drag the little girl, all the while having to soften up his tone to get her to finally stop blubbering, to the bathroom and once they reached their destination he was going to leave her there, but Jewel decided to have him stay and wait there until she came out, by constantly calling his name while in the fucking toilet. She then had him walk her back to her room, both of her parents seemingly unaware that their little baby had a night stroll with a guy who sleeps with a sword. Unfortunately, it seemed that all the fear she had of Morey was gone, and instead treated him like a playground set.

Well, at least she doesn’t bother him during training, and he doesn't have to deal with her every day, that would have really made things a pain. 

“Why?” Maria said, amused, “She likes you now.”

“Yeah! Well I...:” Morey stopped and looked at the little girl staring at him expectantly from atop his head, “Don’t mind...:”

Jewel stopped tugging his hair and beamed. She then opted for a hug, covering Morey’s face with her hands.

“Jewel… what did I say about blinding me?” Morey asked tiredly.

“Umm...:” she drawled, “It’s…”

“It’s...dan-” He helped.

“Dangerous!” Jewel laughed as she hugged his head tighter.

“Jewel!” Morey yelped.

“Now now!” William laughed as he plucked his daughter off his apprentice, “Jewel, let poor Morey take a break! He has a lot of work to do tomorrow! Remember?”

“Oh yeah!” Jewel said as she turned to the novice swordsman, “I’m sorry Morey. Can we play again tomorrow before Mommy and I leave?”

Morey only responded with a grunt, Jewel laughed, and he was pretty sure she was assuming it was yes. He was called here to discuss something with William and Maria, but all he learned was how their spawn was created, and how hard their kid can pull hair. 

There was something bugging him, though. He recalled that William was a seeker, and although he hasn’t learned if Maria is one too, highly unlikely but still food for thought, he wondered what the status of the child was considered. She was born here, but one of her parents is confirmed to be not from this world and has immortality, along with other perks. That still begs another question. 

How long has William been here?

For him to meet someone, fall in love, and start a goddamn family means that he’s been here for years. Does he even know how to get out?

Does he even want to?

“Alright Jewel, why don’t you take a walk with Daddy?” Maria suggested, “Who knows, you guys might even find an ocelot!” 

“Yes! We should head out right now! It's a good time since most of them are active around the evening! Come on Jewel!” William beckoned, leading Jewel out the door.

“Oh! Yes!” Their daughter laughed before adding, “But don’t forget to bring fish! You always forget!”

“Ah… I’m sorry, I’m still a forgetful man, please help me remember!” William joked, holding Jewel in his hands as they walked out the door.

“It’s ok! I’ll help!” was the last thing Morey heard coming from Jewel as the door closed behind them.

“So,” Maria began in her usual interrogative tone, “How’s your training coming along?”

“I thought this was going to be a conversation between all three of us,” Morey snapped.

“It will be, but I feel that a conversation between us is due,” Maria countered, “What? Is there a problem?”

“No,” Morey said flatly, he really didn’t, at least not now. But the lady wouldn’t believe him. If it wasn’t for the way she constantly kept her eye on him, and the way she talked to him he would’ve believed that her intentions were more casual. Constantly implying if there was ever any sign of him wanting to off William. Morey would obviously laugh, then tell her that he couldn't even if he wanted to. Of course in response to that Maria thought that he actually wanted to which only worsened things for a while. After a brief argument he made it clear that he had no reason, and intention, to kill off the only guy willing to teach him to survive. 

“Ok, I’ll just get to the point,” Maria finally said, “Look, you know how seekers get incredibly powerful right?”

William did go over that concept with Morey. It was soul fragments, essence of life from monsters they slaughtered. It was one of the stranger, but more useful, things they dropped. “Yeah William gave me a bit of a crash course on how to get stronger, why?”

“Ok, now consider this,” Maria continued, sitting down on one of the chairs around the fireplace, Morey followed suit, sitting across from her. “Knowing you aren’t the only seeker in Yumesueno, then what’s stopping those that were here for much longer to go on a rampage, if they supposedly had immortality? Why follow rules in general?”

“Um… I’m gonna guess that for a clear conscious is the incorrect answer,” Morey answered.

“You’re half right you cynical brat,” Maria snorted causing a vein to pop from Morey’s forehead. “There are people who genuinely don’t want to hurt people, instead they opt to protect them. But there are those who would care less, but why would they not attempt anything if they have the infinite potential to grow in strength?”

“They’re outnumbered?” Morey snarked, still annoyed at her previous jab at him.

“Once again, you’re half right,” Maria remarked, ignoring his tone, “But even then, what’s to stop a group of seekers to team up, hide in the dangerous forests where deaths means less to them, and farm as many soul fragments as they want?”

That was a good point, and if Maria pointed it out, that meant that there were seekers that attempted this, but what went wrong? If seekers had the infinite potential to grow incredibly powerful, what’s stopping them from doing it? Death becomes obsolete since they can easily revive. Unless…

“There’s a catch,” Morey thought out loud. 

“That’s awfully vague,” Maria chuckled, “You know what the catch is?”

“William never told me about it, so I don’t know,” Morey admitted, “All I know is that after a death I wake up in another random area. Beyond that, I don’t know about any other penalty put on me. Or I haven’t noticed.”

“Well that much is obvious,” Maria remarked, her expression becoming colder when she looked at Morey dead in the eyes, “You didn’t have any soul fragments.”

“So?” Morey scoffed, until realization hit him hard like a sack of bricks, “Wait….”

“Figuring it out now?” Maria said, her expression unchanging, “Not only do you lose supplies, equipment, and items, but you also lose all your soul fragments.”

“WHAT?” Morey barked, “That’s bullshit!”

“Call it what you like, but it's the truth,” Maria responded, shrugging, “Not only would you lose everything you worked for, but to add insult to injury you’ll be put back to square one in the middle of a hostile land, having to repeat the cycles of death until you get lucky enough to land near people willing to help or a fort with supplies. Of course it is possible to attempt to survive on your own with the basics, but then you’ll just end up isolated in a fort for a long time until you can gain enough strength to go back out to explore and find your way back home.”

“Damn…” Morey groaned, “Just when I thought this ability would be useful.”

“It’s a double edge sword, just like many things in life,” Maria explained, “Take it as a form of balance. But there is one more thing I want you to keep in mind.”

“What is it?” Morey asked unsurely. He already felt tense, and the room was only feeling colder the more she talked.

“Items, supplies, and equipment are all valuable, but only if someone can use it,” Maria said leaning forward, “Anyone can obtain soul fragments, no matter the amount, as long as someone dropped some and it’s not in someone’s body…” She let the words sink in for a moment before asking, “you understand what I’m implying?”

It was obvious now why she was so hellbent on figuring out if he wanted to kill William, but still…

“Like I said before, I can’t kill him even if I, for some reason, wanted to,” Morey replied.

Maria leaned back to her chair and wagged her finger at him, “Ah, ah. You do understand that even with the most powerful armor, there is still a man of flesh and blood inside right?”

“But-”

“Which means,” She continued, ignoring Morey’s protests, “That even with an incredibly large sum of soul fragments, one is not invincible. Harder to kill? Yes. But impossible? Ha! Don’t make me laugh. So many seekers with god complexes have learned their place the hard way.”

Morey pondered on the things she just said, it made more sense that he wanted to admit, but then that begged the question:

“How long has William survived?” He asked.

Maria smirked, “In order to get to that level of strength? Over 4 years, and counting.”

“Wait,” Morey wondered, “Isn’t Jewel like 6? What happened?”

Maria broke eye contact for a moment but composed herself and said, “Maybe someday you’ll know, but for now, I want you to know how he managed to survive for so long.”

“What do you mean?” Morey asked, “Isn’t it because he’s strong and-”

“Strong? Definitely. But besides that, I think we can both agree he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed,” She rebuked, “He’s a kind man and a wonderful husband who has provided so much for me and our daughter. He’s protected the village for so long and has asked little in return. The village is fortunate to have him. And I’m much more fortunate to have him as my partner.”

If the room was cold before, it was freezing now. The air around Morey felt thin, and he could have sworn he saw his own breath. He felt like something was squeezing at his chest, making it difficult to breath. The room felt like it was tilting.

Maria's expression darkened, her eyes never leaving Morey’s as she continued, “Which is why I make it my duty to protect him from the monsters that managed to wiggle their way into his armor. Ask me boy,” she spat, “How has he managed to survive so long despite always taking disciples as suspicious as you?”

Morey couldn’t even breathe properly, much less talk, but he mustered the will to form a word, “H-how…”

“Because,” She said, “When they try anything on my husband,” she drawled, as the pressure slowly started to rise up, “They deal with me,” she threatened, “And unlike my beloved, I’m not as kind. I will do what I promised you the first day we met if you even think about taking advantage of William’s kindness in a cruel way, and believe me boy, you won’t be the first, and you certainly won’t be the last.” 

The sheer pressure that Maria emitted was enough for Morey to clutch onto the chair’s soft material. He was panting, was the world spinning? Who the hell is she?

“One of the perks of us natives is the fact that we don’t need soul fragments to use any type of weapon or equipment,” she continued her hair beginning to rise, “And we are born with an affinity with elements, you want to know what mine is?”

Before Morey could respond another blast of pressure hit him harder than before, and all his instincts were telling him to run. He wanted to run, he wanted to die, but he was paralyzed with fear, and he couldn’t move, he could barely breathe. All he could do was stare at her as death leaned over.

“It’s Phase,” she whispered, “It connects with the spirit over to the physical world, it's what our emotions are made of. Love, happiness, anger… fear. You thought about underestimating natives haven’t you? That would have been your greatest mistake. Our secrets are our greatest weapon.”

Morey struggled against the pressure, but he attempted to form a coherent sentence, “Th..then wh...y te-”

“Why tell you?” She asked for him, “Because, for some reason William has taken a liking to you,” she said as the pressure finally let up, causing Morey to slump into his chair gasping for air. She continued, “And I want to at the very least give you a fair warning, consider this an act of kindness, since I mostly use fear pressure as a way to finish someone off.”

“Th-thanks a bunch…” Morey snarked as he tried to compose himself. 

“You’re very welcome,” Maria simply responded.

“I… I don’t plan on killing him,” Morey said, finally able to breath properly again, “ I have nothing to gain in killing him.”

“You see that's what worries me,” Maria sighed, “The way you look at killing him like it was some sort of negotiation.”

Before Morey could respond William bursted through the door, talking about how difficult it was to put Jewel to sleep, and the way Maria’s demeanor changed, from cold blooded assassin to jovial mother and wife made Morey all the more unsettled. But he couldn’t let that deter him.

The conversation with William went the way Morey was expecting, more pointer on his training, and some updates on what was going on in the village from Maria. Nothing as important as the warning the woman gave him.

The next day, after Morey begrudgingly played with Jewel again, she and her mother took off to the village. Maria did not mention their conversation at all after it happened.

Morey had a hard time sleeping that night.

Two nights later, when he was able to finally get some good night sleep, he shot up from his bed with a terrible realization when he asked William how they got to the Colosseum.

“They got here in underground tunnels! There are fucking underground tunnels!”

Sixth month.

Morey was getting proficient with the shield, finally able to keep up with William for a while. But unfortunately since there was little strength and stamina that he can work with against him, he could never last, hell he can barely scratch him.

Either way, in terms of stamina, William usually just puts him in the arena and cover the area with monsters, before it was simply zombies, now however, he puts other creatures into the mix, any monsters he can get his hands on, whether it be floating eyeballs, giant rats, larger rat dogs, or even lions. Morey fought them all.

He finally upgraded to an iron saber. Just as jagged and vicious as before.

Eighth month. 

“Hey William?” Morey asked as he sat near an anvil and was repairing his weapon, “What have you done to people that tried to screw you over?”

“Hmmm? I don’t know what you mean?” William responded, reading a book on a bench near Morey.

“Well, I mean, has anyone tried to hurt you?” the boy questioned as he pulled out another ingot of iron.

“Not that I know of. The worst my students have done is often leave without saying goodbye,” William sighed, “I’d suggest it’s pretty rude, but then again, maybe they’re incredibly eager to to explore the new world!”

Morey sighed and went back to focusing on his saber, his fingers more delicate with the material used, many months of constant fighting had worn down his blade, but it only allowed for him to learn how to repair and craft better. It's as William said, practice will make perfect. Now he can use an anvil, which does better repairs than the reforging station without the fear of his sword changing quality.

Morey really wanted to question William on him and his wife’s past, especially after her little warning she gave him, but he felt it wasn’t really worth the effort. William didn’t even want to talk about his past students all that much, and once Morey did asked William what he was doing protecting the village.

He simply answered, “It’s my home.” 

Morey wanted to tear his hair off and scream, “Why?” but he never did. William never really grilled him on his past, so it was only fair that Morey didn’t ponder too long on his. 

But it was still strange, was William weak compared to other seekers? If that was true that only made the world all the more terrifying, but Morey highly doubted that. William told him once that dragons were one of the strongest creatures in Yumesueno, Maria even agreed, saying that few can actually slay a dragon. So dubbing WIlliam the Dragonseeker was something that only cemented his abnormal strength. WIth that kind of strength he could easily work for more influential and powerful people. Why work in a village that seems to hate him? Does he really not care about his status at all?

But of course, that was all just questions and speculation, but before Morey can continue to think about that, he noticed that his saber was still glowing, even after finishing up the repairs.

“Um..William.”

Tenth month.

Morey sat in the library, his nose deep in a book, all the while a pile of books surrounded him. All he finished reading.

They were instructed on enchantments, maps around the area, unfinished beastiaries, among other books that were more on fictional stories. Morey didn’t let that deter him and he kept reading. It was his only day off.

He learned more about the kingdom, even if it was a little bit. Apparently the capital is well hidden within the jungle that very few people can visit, but apparently it was a city of pure gold, earning the name El Dorado. Most villages are scattered around the kingdom but are still considered a part of it, with a network of underground tunnels made for a safe passageway for merchants and travelers. If people were more extravagant, then the use of Uvaraptors, giant birds that are usually hostile unless tamed, were often used to fly over the thick forest. 

There were three other kingdoms to think about. Cloud Nine was the one that caught Morey’s attention the most. William told him that most of the information there was in the library was outdated, making Morey wonder how he knew. 

William explained that many seekers often spread info around, since there are so many that tend to travel around it’s not uncommon for some to stop by, even some coming by to trade if they had supplies or items not common around the area..

Despite that, Morey still read on and learned that the kingdom was once an incredibly prosperous and stable place. The king was considered to be a wise and noble man, but an increase in disappearances around the kingdom got people to become paranoid. No one suspected the king to be behind it until a staff member of the castle reported to the public that the bodies were located in the castle’s dungeon. In response the king ordered his soldiers and his three Robed Knights to slaughter the people with knowledge of his terrible deed. 

Before the boy could have read more, William snatched the book up from behind him.

“What are you reading?” He asked.

“Just a bit of history you know?” Morey answered nervously.

William shut the book, “Morey I told you that the information in those books were outdated, there’s no point in purposely misinforming yourself, it will only hurt you in the long run,” he lectured sternly.

“I know,” Morey said, annoyed, “But still there’s always truth hidden in the lie, you know? The history doesn’t seem all that farfetch but still, there were things that are sketchy.”

“Doesn’t matter,” William said, “I’ll buy some more up to date books on the kingdoms. You know what this book is?”

Morey looked at him strangely and asked, “What?”

William opened up the book to the very last page to reveal a poster of a man riding a “It’s propaganda.”

“Oh shit.”

“‘Oh shit’ indeed.”

“But why do you still have that propaganda book?” Morey asked.

“It’s more of a reminder of how people never change, regardless of the world,” William explained glumly, “I’ve seen wars in my time here, but none could compare to that one.”

“You were a part of the Cloud Rebellion?” Morey gasped.

“No, I was an observer, my friend was a part of it.” William clarified.

“What happened?”

William shrugged, “War, you heard about wars no Morey? It’s all the same, the methods of killing are different, but the reasoning behind those weapons are always the same,” he simply said, impling he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

“Oh…” Morey said. It raised a lot of questions, but they were questions that he didn’t really have time to think about. He just wanted to get back home, so he left it at that.

Still makes him wonder.

Ending of the year.

The feast was nice.

Morey, along with William’s family all sat around a table set in one of the larger rooms in the colosseum. In a way it was an anniversary for the year Morey spent there. 

The air was warm and the fragrance of freshly cooked meat filled the room along with the chattering of the family. Jewel was making a mess with her food but still managed to have both of her parents smiling, Maria simply ate all the while cleaning up her daughter’s food, Morey was quiet as usual but William often now made him have to be a part of the conversation.

Morey didn’t mind as much anymore. Things were good, he had learned a lot this year, he was sure he was almost ready to take on the world and find his way back home. Secrets may be left uncovered, but none of that was his concern. That was William's life and Morey had no reason to press forward, he was a teacher, nothing more nothing less. His life will be free of any chains, no title of monster, no fear of betrayal from old enemies, and no one to tell him what to do. Here he had a clean record and a somewhat clear conscience. 

Despite nine months ago Maria threatening his life, she seemed to have warmed up to the boy, even when alone in a room without William or Jewel she wasn’t as invasive or cold as before. 

“Congrats on the year of training, Morey,” the woman in question said, smiling at him. 

“Thanks,” Morey nodded, he’s been saying that more often. Not that they don’t deserve it. They were quite the interesting group. Morey knew both of them had skeletons in their closets, but so did he. There was no point in thinking about that. He still had his goal in mind. 

“Haha! I tell you Maria he’s a natural!” William boomed, “Or maybe I’m too amazing of a trainer!”

They laughed and joked throughout the dinner. Morey knew he was going to have to leave. He was kinda gonna miss them. 

But still, he should enjoy the moment. It’s been such a long time since he had this warmth. Almost made him want to stop beating people up. Almost.

One year and one week.

Morey was never good with a bow, and it showed. He can pull back the string at its full tension, but his accuracy was terrible. Still, there was no one reliable to learn from, William was not a very good teacher for that. But still, he practiced his target which was just a scarecrow planted in the center of the arena.. He’s gotta stay focused. It was a good thing it was quite or else-

“William!” Maria shouted in the hallways running into the arena, causing Morey to jump and shoot the arrow completely off. The arrow bounced from the wall and towards one of the weapon racks, knocking it down. 

“What the hell!?” Morey barked, “I thought you guys were gonna show up next week.”

Maria ignored his outburst and instead frantically asked, “Where William?!”

“Maria?” William shouted as he walked from one of the locker rooms, sporting a fresh set of red armor, “What’s the matter? And where’s Jewel?” 

“William, there’s been a situation!” Maria explained, “Jewel’s in one of the locker rooms taking a nap, she’s safe, but the villagers...”

William’s eyes widened, “What happened?”

“Wait, what the hell is going on?” Morey shouted from behind Maria.

“A disaster,” Maria explained, “An eruption occurred near the village, I went through the tunnels to call you. We still have some time before they come to the village.”

“That’s not so bad,” William laughed only to get cut off when Maria glared at him.

“It gets worse,” she said, “The eruption awoke a stage 4 dragon,” William tensed up as Maria continued, “And it’s on it’s way to the village as well.”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, things are actually gonna heat up guys and gals. Will our "hero" be able to take down the disaster that is coming to the village? With William, of course they can. No need to worry.
> 
> I wonder if I should add "Badass wife" as one of the tags. Eh, it hardly make a difference.


	9. Our heroes! Not!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now with the threat of both a disaster and dragon heading their way, our two "heroes" must now head back to the village they are not welcomed in. What awaits them now?

“Hurry it up Morey!” William’s voice echoed through the tunnels as they rushed towards the station. Turns out that not only do they have tunnel systems throughout the kingdoms, but also a railroad system. The entrance to the underground railroad turned out to be in the very back of the colosseum, secretly behind one of the “Compact Wasterooms” that was hidden behind a large trash bin that was never used, and after that they still had to open up an entrance that was hidden within the wall. 

Morey wondered why they even hid it at all, it seemed like such an inconvenience. Well, it wasn’t his place to judge anyways.

The station for the railroad was a large stalactite cave with the roof covered entirely in sparkling minerals reaching down to the floor. The floor was smoothed out into a road where any stalactites blocking it were cleared out completely. Morey was sure that at one point it was polished, but now it was a dull grey color from what he guessed was from the lack of maintenance and the number of dirty boots stomping over it without a care. 

The station itself was relatively simple, much like a loading station in a roller coaster. There were multiple iron poles lined up to the seats that people would climb aboard, along with a railing that kept anyone from walking into the railroad. The carts themselves were comparable to the trams that he rode back at home. It was honestly a bit underwhelming. 

Morey looked for a sign of power, but saw none. He wondered how the carts even moved. Gravity? Magic? Some other power sources? All he could see was a switch that was placed on the sides of the railroad tracks. 

William didn’t bat an eye as he jumped on one of the carts and signalled Morey to hop on. The boy decided not to question it much and instead just went with it. 

Maria had stayed behind with Jewel, saying that she’ll meet up with them soon. William didn’t object, a little girl dealing with that kind of disaster was not something both parents wanted again. Morey was also relieved, but for a different reason, he wouldn’t have to deal with the hair pulling gremlin during the battle. 

As soon as both warriors were on, William threw a stone that tilted the lever, activating the ride. Unlike most roller coasters, which required a build up to the top of a drop in order for the cart to speed up, the cart went from zero to a hundred kilometers per hour in a matter of seconds.

Morey’s body was knocked into the chair by the forces of the cart’s speed. The air blew on his face, stinging his eyes and pushing his head back. He could barely keep them open without them getting immediately dried up. The howling of the wind, the rocky road making the cart jump constantly, and the sheer speed of the cart brought some unwanted memories of rollercoasters back into Morey’s head. Thankfully there were no drops, meaning that there were no risks of too much nausea... 

He was not afraid of rollercoasters. He just had a little motion sickness. Anyone saying otherwise was just asking for trouble. 

“William…” Morey sputtered, his head was already spinning and he felt his breakfast rise up, “Is there a way to slow down?”

William didn’t even register him, much to Morey’s annoyance. He was too busy staring off into the distance, his expression unreadable, which was strange since he tended to make himself out to be an open book. It was a bit unsettling, but then again, a disaster was coming, so of course they had to focus. 

Morey really wished he could do that, but the bile was starting to rise up to his throat, and he wasn’t sure how long it will be until he his breakfast decides to do a revisit, so he decided to do the next best thing. Grit his teeth and hold it in.

The ride was relatively quiet, besides the sounds of Morey gagging throughout it. Thankfully, nothing came out. So he had that going for him.

At least, that's what he thought until the carts slowed down considerably. That was enough for his stomach to lurch and finally, after the long ride to the village, the cart made a complete stop.

Morey too busy debating on whether or not to spill out his guts that he didn't realize the cart stopped until William said, "We're here."

The boy, who was gagging on the side of the cart, looked up from his place of misery at the entrance. The station looked exactly the same as the one they came from, just as dusty and unmaintained as the last one. Taking a look around their location, Morey also noticed that they were in a dead end. The rails stopped where they were, and now that he thought about it, the rails back to the coliseum also ended there. Besides connecting the village and the coliseum, there were no other routes to use to get there without walking through the treacherous jungle.

There was no way this was a coincidence, but questioning it now was not a good idea. It wouldn’t matter anyways. Why?

Because Morey planned on leaving in a week.

Of course, he forgot to tell his trainer, William, his plans. He was going to tell him the day before, just to keep the month more relaxed. But now Morey was at a crossroad.

Should he leave now?

Morey had no attachment to the village, in fact, he finds them quite annoying with the way they looked at him with scorn and fear as if his greatest sin was existing.

They reminded him too much of the many people he dealt with back home.

Those are the kinds of people that tend to act without thinking of the consequences. Kick a bull, they’ll deal with the horn. Play with fire, they’ll get burned. Mess with him, he’ll make sure they’ll never do it again. 

They don’t show open hostility once he deals with them, but he always could feel the glares they gave him, the whispers of disgust at the kind of person he was.

No, he’s still like that.

Of course, if he actually cared about people’s opinions, he would’ve just let them walk all over him, and he did try that don’t get him wrong, but the consequences of letting his guard down, with his kind of reputation ended him all alone and more damaged than before.

That wasn’t something to think about here and now, maybe after this battle he could talk it out with William. He was an understanding guy. It would be better to let him know at the very least a week prior and after he helped out. He owed him that much.

Morey swallowed the content that was building up in his throat, and tried to focus on the task ahead. There was a disaster heading to the village, along with a stage four dragon.

There were five different stages of a dragon. Regardless of the stage, they are incredibly powerful. The most common ones are stage one and two, maybe three if the dragon lived long enough. Four and five are usually hidden underground sleeping, making them incredibly rare to see. But if one is unfortunate enough to run into a dragon in that stage….Well, they better pray they didn’t wake it up.

Morey already knew first hand how powerful a common dragon was. He wasn’t sure what stage it was, be he was sure it was going to be much smaller than the one they’re going to deal with if even William is shaken.

Speaking of William, he was leading Morey out of the station and was currently walking through a cave not speaking a word besides giving basic directions, or calling out to Morey to make sure he was keeping up. The cave had flickering lanterns placed all over the ceilings. The stalactites here were cleared out, and there was a sign of more wear and tear than in the coliseum station.

After a long and quiet walk through the cave, a rusted iron door was found at the end. William pushed it open revealing a wall, and before Morey could ask what the wall was, William grabbed it, and slid it to the side, revealing the village walls only a short walk from there.

The entrance to the station near the village was also hidden.

Now Morey really wanted to ask him about it, but once again he was cut off when William suddenly turned to him, grabbed his shoulders, and asked, “Morey, we’re almost to the village, so I need you to do something for me when we get inside.”

“Uhm...ok what?” Morey asked hesitantly.

William looked ahead to the village gates and sighed. “Look Morey, you and I that we’re different...and well…”

“C’mon Will, no need to sugarcoat it. Just say it.”

“Morey, I need you to smile,” William pleade. 

“What?” the boy asked, confused.

William sighed as he continued, “Listen, the village guards are nervous enough dealing with the threats heading here, they don’t need more things to worry abo-”

“Wait,” Morey interrupted, realization dawned on him, “Don’t they treat you like crap?”

“Well yes but-”

“And you know why?”

Well it's because I’m a seeker…”

“Right, so….” Morey drawled, “You know I’m one too.”

“Yes that is correct,” William responded.

“So…” Morey continued, “They don’t like seekers?”

“They don’t dislike us, they’re just cautious,” William argued.

“Cautious while they give you glares behind your back,” Morey retorted. 

“Morey, please understand,” William pleaded, “People are just afraid, I’m begging you, whatever happens, don’t escalate.”

“Why?” Morey asked, “If you give someone an inch they’ll take a mile. No way I’m going to be all smiles while I know they don’t want me around.”

“Morey, I’m not asking you to bend over backwards for them, I just need you to not escalate anything when things get tense,” William then took his arms off of Morey and flashed a reassuring smile, “I’ve been living here for almost two years. If they’d want me dead, they would’ve done it by now?”

“I guess... But still, I’m not going to act all happy,” Morey asserted, “I’m not gonna let them walk all over me.”

William sighed, “Morey, they won’t walk all over you unless you let them, at most I’m asking you to just roll with the punches.”

“Roll with the punches?”

“Yes, just agree to disagree if someone tries to instigate anything. If you escalate they'll think they're winning,” William explained. 

“Either way they’ll think they’re winning.” Morey retorted.

The older man sighed, even deeper than before, “It doesn’t matter what they think.”

“It will for them! If I let them talk down to me they’ll think it’ll always be ok to talk down to me!” Morey barked, “I may be considered to be an outcast, a jerk but I will never put my head down to those kinds of people.”

“Morey…” William said unhappily.

“I can’t let it happen again. You can’t please everyone, big fucking deal, I won’t cater to them. They don't deserve it.”

“Listen...” William said tensely.

I try to understand! I try to figure out what I’ve done to them personally that warranted that kind of treatment, but I’m not going to be smile for them, I still have my pride-”

“PRIDE BE DAMN!”

They both went quiet. Only the sound of the trees rustling were heard, and even then it was still eerily quiet. No animals could be heard whereas before Morey was sure he at the very least heard a couple of birds. Nothing. William’s shout drove everything sentient away. 

“I…I’m sorry for yelling,” the knight mumbled.

Morey didn’t respond.

“Look,” William continued, “I know how it feels to be antagonized, I know that it all seems unfair, and I know that being aggressive might work in the short term. But contempt just leads to more contempt. It becomes a disease that infected everyone around you, and...well, people get hurt, or worse.” 

The knight shuffled uncomfortably where he was standing, but he held his gaze on Morey as he put a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “Morey, it’s not worth the effort to escalate. If someone says a lie that spreads to the world, marking you as a monster, you don’t prove them wrong by acting like the thing they labeled you for. You fight for the truth, for dignity. Not pride, never pride.” 

“But I-” Morey began, but then pondered for a moment before finally relenting, “Fine, I understand.”

“Really?” William asked, genuinely surprised. “Just like that?”

“You have a point William. There’s no point in fighting a fruitless battle. You’ve never strayed me wrong before and...I trust your judgement,” It was the least he could do.

William was taken aback by the words that came out of the rambunctious boy’s mouth that he had to take a step back. “Oh, Um… Well, good. Don’t worry,” he said, a bit more cheerful, although his enthusiasm took a noticeable dive, “As long as we’re respectable, they’ll have no reason to instigate anything.”

Morey nodded, although he had way less enthusiasm than his mentor, “Fair enough I guess, so...should we get going?”

“Huh? Oh yes! Of course,” the knight yelped as he ushered the boy toward the village.

It’s been a little over a year since Morey has seen the village. Almost nothing had changed in the outer walls. The same black wall stood loomed over them. The large gate at the front also stood, except there were more guards there than before.

The guards were initially unnerved upon their arrival, but when the duo got closer, the guards lowered their weapons and instead gave an uninterested wave.

“Hello!” William greeted, “Let's do our best in this fight! Best of luck!”

One of the guards gave an indifferent grunt in response, while the rest pretended not to hear.

Morey’s eyes twitched.

William gave an uncomfortable laugh as they walked into the village. 

The village itself hasn’t changed much either, besides the complete abandonment of all the houses and buildings inside. The inhabitants must have evacuated early as soon as there were early signs of disasters. Other than that the place was virtually the same as when Morey first got there one year ago.

As soon as they got inside they saw a crowd huddled up in the middle. The people in the crowd were clearly the guardians of the village if the chain mail and thick leather clothing they had on were any indication. 

Among the crowd were three figures in the center of it. All of them sporting a robe that made them stand out in the crowd. The robe itself was pretty simple in design, only having one solid color, green. Other than that, the three figures were similarly equipped as the others. 

The tallest of the three was a black haired man in his early 20s, no signs of facial hairs on his sharp chin. He wore his cape over his shoulders, revealing the armor underneath the cape. His eyes were constantly narrow, and his face was currently in a scowl, making those without capes be constantly stiff around him. The cigar in his mouth was on the verge of snapping in half from the clenching of his teeth.

The man beside him seemed unaffected by his companions scary face, and was instead sporting a shit eating grin beside him. He held a large parchment, which Morey assumed to be a map, and was sporting a simple brown cap where strands of brown hair peaked out of it that said FLEX in yellow letters. Unlike his companion, he had stubble growing around his chin and cheeks and had his cape wrapped around his body. Whatever he was saying seemed to only upset his companion more. 

Before the sharp eyed guy blew a fuse, a third person was then introduced. An imposing woman, although not as scary faced as the cigar guy (or Maria), she still had a stern look on her face. Unlike her peers, she had red hair that was tied to the back into a ponytail. She also held her cape over her body, mostly likely for modestly, Morey would assume. She held an exaggerated posture that reminded him of a businesswoman. 

As William and Morey got closer they were able to listen in to the conversation. The village warriors moved away from their path, allowing them to approach the trio.

“I can’t believe you Carlos!” Cigar face yelled. 

Olha, au I’m issayin isse dat dere is a perfectly heasonable explanation for why we’re behind,” Stubble man, who Morey assumed was Carlos, attempted to explain.

“And what is it?” Cigar Face growled.

“Jaja! Weu, a couple of friends bought issome cervejas! I couldn’t just issay no! I have a heputation to protect!”

“And because of that we’re fifteen minutes behind schedule!” Cigar Faced barked, “You stupid, irresponsib-”

“Now, now Carter,” Ginger Girl lectured, “You have to understand the situation, people were panicking, if anything thanks to Carlos, there was more order in the evacuation since most of the adults were hung over, while the children were not as scared as before. Not to mention that morales among or warriors are much higher than before.”

“Ja! La beleza Ellie, you are auwayse a beacon of light wherever you go, fank you!” Carlos sang as he attempted to wrap his arms around her.

Keyword being “attempt.”

“AAGH! MERDA!” the capped man yelled as he was engulfed in an electrical shock, courtesy of the red haired girl, Ellenor.

“A man who bends over backwards to superficially impress me is not a man in my eyes. You were almost half a man, but of course you always make yourself seem like the fool,” She snapped as she shut off the device, making Carlos collapse to the ground.

“Ell, we need him conscious, you know? For the fight,” Carter sighed. 

Ellie only shrugged, “I’m sorry, my emotions get the better of me, whenever I see this worm I just think about… a real man,” her voice became softer, much to Morey’s, and probably Carter’s, discomfort. She continued despite not realizing that William and him were right behind them, “William, oh...now there’s a real man. Strong, stern, and oh so humble.”

“Ellie,” Carter said, trying to get her attention when he saw who was behind her, she ignored him.

“A true man whose heroism shows no bound.”

“Ellie!”

“And don’t get me started on his sweet, sweet, a-”

“ELLIE!” Carter shouted, clenching his teeth so hard the cigar finally fell off his mouth, “Enough for the love of god!”

“Jealousy is unbecoming of a man.” She lectured, “If only you were half the man he was, oh dear!” she swooned, “If at least you had his bod-”

“He’s right behind you,” Carter explained, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Yes, sure he is! Or maybe you can't handle being compared to him,” she taunted until William cleared his throat.

As soon as Ellie turned around and went face to face with the man she was admiring, all her bravado vanished.

“W-William? When did you get here!” She screeched, dropping all the papers she was holding and jumping behind Carter, “A-and...how much did you hear?”

“Eh...well...”

“And you cau me da shameless one! Jajaja!” Carlos, who jumped back up as if he wasn’t just electrocuted, laughed as he picked up the papers the stammering woman dropped. “You do know that he isse married? Jajaja!”

“I-I can still admire someone!” Ellie attempted to defend.

“Ah yes! You werre admiring his essweet, essweet a-”

Before the man could finish his sentence, Ellie swung her baton at him. He ducked underneath it and jumped out of her reach, still laughing, as Ellie furiously attempted to catch him.

“Ellie! Enough!” Carter roared, grabbing her by her skull causing her to screech in annoyance, “You too Carlos!”

“Is this normal?” Morey asked.

Everyone paused for a moment, and looked at the source of the voice. 

Carlos was the first to react, “Weu, weu, weu! El amiguinho has a voice! Welcome to hell! E ai garoto?” 

“What?” Morey asked, completely perplexed at the group in front of him.

“He’s doing well Carlos! We’re all good! Don’t worry, we didn’t hear much of the conversation, heh…” William chuckled awkwardly, “Can we...erm just move things along now?”

Carter cleared his throat, and walked up to Morey, letting go of Ellie, “So you’re the new apprentice? I expect exceptional things from you, especially if you were under the tutelage of Mr. Arc himself,” He paused, before slapping himself in the face hard, making Morey jump from his sudden action, and exclaimed, “Goodness! Where are my manners! I’m ashamed of my behavior! Forgive me! My name is Carter Grant, One of the squad leaders of the Lost Jungle Platoon and one of the Sergeants in the Anhanga Service currently under Lieutenant Bluno in the Defense Corps. I pride myself in the preservation of lives of those that reside in our beautiful kingdom.”

“Um..Yeah,” Morey said unsurely, “Wait, you and that horny ginger girl over there don’t have accents. Why is that?” Said “horny ginger girl” began glaring daggers at him.

“Ah, Morey! That's a bit…” William began before Carter cut him off.

“No it’s fine, he’s new here after all, no?” Carter asked, William awkwardly nodded before he continued, “Unlike what we learned about other seekers and their world, the four kingdoms have more open borders for everyone. My father wanted to start fresh away from Chrynerotis, so he went to Cloud Nine, where not only did he meet my mother but it was the place of my birth, unfortunately there were some.... unsavory activities going on over there. We moved here when I was young. That’s why my tongue is native to my father’s homeland and a bit from Cloud Nine. As for Ellie, well, our stories are more common than you think.”

“Except,” She added, fixing up her posture and getting out of Carter’s back, “My parents were both native to Cloud Nine. They got chased out during the Cloud Rebellion when I was twelve. Many families were, so don’t be too surprised over the mixed dialect.I’m Sergeant Ellenor Stewart, I dream of myself to become a capable soldier that prides themselves in bravery, humility, and honor,” she said as she took a bow, “I’d say it's a pleasure, but I also pride myself in honesty.”

“I see,” Morey said, “And you’re native to this kingdom?” he asked as he pointed to the capped man.

“Dat’s hight.Dis very village isse my childhood home! I’m a Lieutenant from de essame brigade and lead dis platoon. I’m First Lieutenant Carlos Silva! ”

“Damn, I thought that Carter guy was the leader,” Morey whispered to William.

“Morey! Be polite!” William scolded.

Morey only shrugged as he introduced himself, “Hello, name’s Morey Anderson, I’m a seeker and have been under the training of William. I...uh...hope to meet your expectations.”

“A bit of a rude start, but he seems respectable,” Carter observed. “Hopefully in battle you’ll do well.”

“Jaja! Weu, you werre both too late for de party!” Carlos laughed, “Au that we can offer is some of the leftover booze! Jajaja! Not that it would be a good idea a day before the battle! It’sse best to hest up as essoon as you can, de moment de first monster isse spotted, the battle wiu begin!”

“You buffoon! at least go over the plan with them!” Ellie yelled. 

“Eh, I’u leave it to you, you explain better anyways. Ta bom? Everyone!” The soldiers stiffened, “Good night!” the Lieutenant said as he walked away. Many of the soldiers followed after him.

“No! Not ta bom!” She yelled as she pursued him, “Get back you-! And he’s gone!” The female sergeant complained as she heard one of the doors slam shut.

“Eh leave him, he has to know what he’s doing.” Carter said.

Morey looked at Carter, “You have that much faith in him?”

Both sergeants shuffled uncomfortably, which told him all he needed to know.

“That's besides the point,” the male sergeant interjected as he rubbed his temple and pulled out the map he had rolled up, “The evacuation is nearly complete, so now we were focusing on fortifying range fighters up in the wall since there are many monsters that are capable of flight.”

‘Why am I not surprised,’ Morey thought glumly.

“Thankfully,” Carter continued, “There’s usually few in these events, so they won’t be a problem as long as the archers and summoner's do their jobs. There is a good choke point in the front of the gate, so most of the close quarter combatants will be placed there. Scouts will be called back before fires become too uncontrollable and then be used for running supplies. Afterwards it's just outlasting them, then it should be easy enough.”

“But,” Ellie added, “The real problem is the dragon. It’s scales make it nearly impossible to penetrate with traditional arrows. Only diamond bolt arrows can actually damage it, but those are incredibly rare, so we’ll have to rely on the both of you. Insteading of helping with defenses, you’ll be on standby.”

“No,” William said sternly.

“I’m sorry?” Ellie responded. 

“We can’t stand by and watch your soldiers fight until the dragon comes. And we don’t know if the dragon will catch up with the eruption monsters which will cause even more mayhem. I’m sorry, but I can’t wait for the dragon to come.”

Carter cut in, “So then, what’s your plan then?”

William smiled, “Morey and I will take the battle to them.”

Later that night after the conversation with the sergeants, the duo retired to one of the rooms available in the village. William sat on one of the beds while Morey paced around the room.

“William?” 

“Yes Morey?” 

“WHAT THE FUCK!”

“What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean what’s wrong? You threw us in the fire!”

“Would you rather those guys be thrown into it?”

“Well...no but-”

“But what?”

“I-” Morey paused and pondered for a moment. They were the only seekers around. But death wasn’t without its consequences, even if they can revive. All their progress would go up in smokes. And Morey knew that this enemy was incredibly powerful.That only made it all the more terrifying to deal with. These aren't the classic zombies he was dealing with. Dragons were in a whole other league. Not only was Morey at risk, but so was William.

But that only gave William all the more reasons to go fight this desperate battle. There was no way he was going to turn his back on the natives of this world. Especially if they’re in danger. 

He was a damn fool.

“I’m gonna go get some air,” Morey muttered as he opened the door out.

“Morey…” William said solemnly, but by then Morey was already gone, “Don’t be long.”

As soon as the boy got out of the room, he was surprised to feel how hot it was outside. The heat wasn’t suffocating, but the air still felt thick to breath.

He ignored it and instead opted to explore the village, No one was around to bother him, most having fallen asleep, resting up for the battle tomorrow.

Morey looked at the gates, they were right there. All he had to do was walk through them, and this would not be his problem anymore. These assholes can deal with it themselves. Why should he stick his neck out for-

_ “Please! You’re strong right!” _

_ “You’re not so bad after all!” _

_ “He’s not a monster!” _

_ “I believe you but...”  _

Morey shook his head, trying to clear out those thoughts. He can abandon Will, but would now be a good time? No, of course not! William gave him too much for him to just up and abandon the man. He’s done more for less for fuck sakes! His mother, who just by giving him encouraging words, made him want to be a top student. His father, who just by teaching him more disciplined forms of martial arts, made him want to be the strongest. 

His family showed him love like he never experienced before. In a time full of lonely nights, brutal training, and terrible caregivers who never gave him the time of day he never once felt that. And the fights, don’t get him wrong he loved fighting, but it was the only thing that made him a bit happy during those times, and winning was the only thing that kept those bastards from beating him down. But at best, it was only superficial, it was all wins for survival, not happiness. He was just a means to an end. 

He never regretted not helping spoiled people. He never regretted beating up people who tried to do the same thing those two “caregivers” did to him. Yet, they would look at him like he’s the monster. A monster for trying to protect himself.

And here? There should be less of a reason to help out these people, it should outweigh the debt he owes William, and yet…

_ “ I know how it feels to be antagonized.” _

_ “Contempt just leads to more contempt.” _

Morey turned around and walked away. Away from the gates. 

He was only going to help him out just this once. Just. This. Once. After that, he’ll leave, and never have to think about it again. Besides, it’ll be a good way to test the strength of his new tools and abilities. That was it.

Now that Morey thought about it, he wondered what sorts of weapons natives use here. It’s clear from his meeting with Maria that natives have quite a few tricks up their sleeves. Maybe he could poke around to see what ways the military works here.

His thoughts were interrupted by the loud belch of someone above him. He looked up and saw a familiar figure laying atop one of the village roofs.

“Still out for a nightly esstro’u?”

Morey sighed, and here he thought he might have had a quiet night. “Sort of, just wanted to clear my head,” He answered.

The lieutenant sat up from his spot and eyed him over, “Say...you’re de apprentice, falou? Uau, what are you still doing around here?”

Morey tilted his head, “What are you talking about? So what if I stick around?”

Carlos said nothing for a moment, instead staring at him with an unreadable expression. He then barked out a laugh as he said, “Jajaja! De jeito nenhum!”

“What?” Morey asked, more irritated than before.

“I don’t believe it!” the lieutenant laughed, “I don’t believe dat you’d esstick around for the fight! Jajaja!”

“What? You’re saying I would run away?”

Carlos kept laughing, “Deus! You’re a strange one garoto!”

Morey looked at him unamused. 

Carlos calmed down enough to say, “Dose eyes, I’ve esseen dose eyes on many esseekers before. You wanna know what dey do before de battle?”

Morey shook his head, suddenly feeling very uneasy.

“The lieutenant took a swig from one of his bottles, then slammed it on the ground, “Dey either end up dead, or dey run away! Jajaja!” he jeered, “And you wanna know de best part is?

The boy pondered for a bit until he answered, “What?”

“Their deaths!” he laughed, “Were au caused by de handsse of William!”

“WHAT?”

“Shocking, falou? You should already know dat man is a monster in de battlefield,” Carlos continued, “But when not in battle, he’s a man who never hurts esso much as a bug in hisse yard, but a demon? No hesitation to cut dem down.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Morey growled.

The drunk man shrugged as he began to rummage around the pile of bottles, “It’s just such a strange thing to occur. I’ve known Wiu and Maria for a long time. I’ve esseen my fair esshare of young esseekers attempting something esstupid against him. Whether dey leave once dey effeel dat William isse useless to dem, or attempt to essteal his essoul fragments as a last object of use he may offer. Maria may deal withe you first if you were lucky! Jajaja!” He found a bottle and began chugging it down continuing afterwards, “And yet, you’re stiu here. For essome heason you stuck around, and you’re not someone who wants to be a hero, far from it from de way things look. You’re not a saint, falou?”

Morey didn’t respond, allowing for Carlos to jeer on, “You’re an enigma, garoto! Jajaja! Wonder what mayhem wi’u come from you! A man fighting his fate! Now dat’s something worth drinking!” the drunk lieutenant laughed as he let out another belch.

The boy pondered on what the man on the roof just said and asked, “What do you mean by fate?”

“Olha,” the Lieutenant began, “dere are many definitions of fate, de most ridiculous one is de concept dat everything is prewritten, and dat we have no freedom in what we do. Dat one is often used by those who want to believe dat de way de world isse da way dat it’sse suppose to be. Like kings who want to hemain in power, or a lazy bum who doesn’t want to work,” he took another swig from his bottle, “Ahh! Da one I was talking about isse de branching theory!”

“Branching theory?”

“Sim!” Carlos confirmed, “You see, we are often given choices in many fings droughout our lives, dus branches are formed, whether you can choose a hed shirt or a green shirt, somefing so mundane may be of little consequence in ourre lives may alter many fings in de future. But there are certain parts of our own person, such asse talents, personalities, and situations we arre born in dat lock us in certain paths dat no matter which branch we take, we ourselves wiu find ourselves hight dere, not out of any outside force, god, or universal intervention, but because that isse how we are as a person. We are locked in dose paths without realizing it, and even me telling you won’t change much! From de looks of it, you being here means dat your fate was either defied, or maybe I was hong in my guess after being so comfortable before! We’u find out soon! jajajaja!” The bottle clinked against each other as the drunken man gave off the loud hearty laugh, “Garroto, itsse late, you should head back if you heally wanna stick around for de battle. jajajaja!”

Morey wasn’t sure how to respond to the lieutenant, but decided it wasn’t worth the headache and decided to head back.

Upon opening the door, William, who was already in bed, jumped out of the sheets in shock, “Morey?! You’re back?”

The boy looked at him confused, wondering what he did such a reaction, until he remembered the chat he had with the lieutenant, “I went out for some fresh air, that was all.”

“I-I see! Well…. Good! That's great! I wondered when you’d be back!” William laughed.

Morey knew that was a lie, but at this point, he couldn’t really blame him.


End file.
